House of Cards
by o Mischief Managed
Summary: -Written for Halloween!- Like playing games? How about spending Halloween night at a haunted casino? When life's the ante, you'd better hope Lady Luck is on your side. Because when you gamble, sometimes even when you win, you lose. -SxM-KxL- COMPLETE!
1. But Tomorrow's Halloween!

OKAY! Halloween story time! Woo-hoo!

I'm gonna be honest and say I've never really written anything like this before, so we'll see how it goes. I think it'll be fun! Yay! haha (can you tell I'm in a good mood? Which makes no sense cuz I'm home sick from work, but whatevs...)

Before we start, I wanna say this takes place **roughly two years or so in the future**. To be completely honest, I have no idea how old the gang are (it may have said at some point, but it's been a while since I first read the manga, so, you know... I forget things). Here's how I see it at present, canon time: Maka and Patty are like 14, Soul, Black Star, and Kid all like 15, and Liz and Tsubaki like 16. If that's wrong, that's fine, go ahead and point it out to me, but for the sake of this story, let's pretend that's how it is, okay? SO! Here's how old they all are IN THIS STORY:  
><strong>Maka, Patty: 16<br>Soul, Black Star, Kid: 17  
>Tsubaki, Liz: 18<strong>

Good? Okay. Ummm... I don't think there's anything else I need to say, other than the fact that this is a horror-ish story, and as with all horror movies, we can't go without romance! Okay, it won't be the main focus, but it'll be there! And since this is me writing it, there'll be decent amounts of Soul/Maka and Kid/Liz, and maaaaaaaybe some Black Star/Tsubaki later on if I feel like it :D

Oh also, this chapter just kind of sets up for things to come later :D You'll see, haha

Last but not least, I own not the awesomeness that is Soul Eater... Only my own imaginaaaaation! *cue rainbows*

* * *

><p>"Come on, we're gonna be late!"<p>

Maka barely caught a glimpse of her partner rolling his eyes before she yanked open the doors and led the way quickly inside. As she'd expected—and to her slight dismay—they were once again the last to arrive.

"And where were _you_ guys?" Yup, she'd seen that one coming too.

Ignoring Black Star as he raised his eyebrows at them and waited for an answer that would never come, Maka turned instead to the front of the room. "We're sorry, Lord Death. We were—"

"No need for explanations," the grim reaper responded in a friendly voice. "But now that you're all here, we can get down to business. I've got a job for you."

Everyone fell silent at once, waiting with baited breath. It wasn't every day that they got assignments anymore. With Asura gone for good, there simply wasn't much for them to do on a day to day basis. Which, admittedly, was a good thing, as it meant that there was a relative peace about the world. But with peace came a certain… boredom that only the thrill of battle could relieve. And it was for that reason that Maka knew that all of her teammates were just as anxious to hear what their leader had to say as she was.

"Have any of you heard of the Alamo Grand Hotel and Casino?" he inquired, cocking his head to the side and raising a finger.

Maka shook her head, noticing similar blank looks on the people closest to her. But to her surprise, it was Kid who spoke next.

"It's a casino that just opened about a half mile from Las Vegas. I've heard they were experiencing some technical difficulties since their grand opening, but what's that got to do with us?"

Lord Death nodded to his son. "The owner has put out a request for a team of paranormal investigators to inspect the recent goings-on in the hotel. According to many guests I've spoken to, things have gotten quite strange there recently."

"'Paranormal'…" Liz repeated, an uneasy look in her eyes. "You mean like… ghosts?"

"For lack of a better term, yes," Lord Death answered. "You see, the Alamo Grand was built over a battle site from a few centuries ago. The hotel building had actually been abandoned for many years, but recently it was renovated and the casino was added on so that the owner could re-open it as a hotel and casino. The trouble is, a lot of strange events have been taking place there since it opened six months ago. Many people have reason to believe it's haunted."

Black Star snorted loudly. "What do we look like, Ghostbusters?" he scoffed. "I don't see how this is a job for the DWMA."

"Black Star!" his weapon partner chided. "You shouldn't say things like that!"

"Don't worry," Lord Death interrupted. "You're right. If it were only ghosts, I would have to agree that it doesn't involve us in the slightest."

"So you think it's something else?" Soul asked as Maka frowned, trying to understand the implications.

The grim reaper paused, scratching what would be his chin. "In a manner of speaking. You see, I suspect there is witchcraft involved."

Everyone was silent for a beat, before Maka asked, "What exactly is going on at this place?"

For the next several minutes, Lord Death explained to them about the various experiences that patrons of the Alamo Grand had encountered in recent months. Most were small, such as lights flickering on and off and water running when unbidden from guests. Occasionally there were reports of sightings of what were described as old war veterans. Recently, however, there had been more and more minor injuries taking place—glass shattering and cutting guests, others claiming to have been shoved down staircases, towels attempting to strangle people, and the like. All in all, the owner and employees were starting to get anxious.

"So… what do you want us to do?" Maka asked carefully.

Lord Death addressed them all, "I would like you to spend the night at the Alamo Grand and see what you can find out. If what I suspect is true, these ghosts aren't here by accident. And no one is better trained to track down a witch than my students."

"B-But tomorrow's Halloween!" Liz protested. "Aren't spirits supposed to be stronger on Halloween? Shouldn't we maybe… wait a few days? I'm free on the fourth!" She forced a kind of light giggle which only served to make her sound slightly insane. Maka noticed Black Star hide a laugh and Tsubaki elbow him in the ribs.

"Don't worry, sis!" Patty reassured her older sister, patting her on the arm. "We're stronger than any old dead guys! If they try and mess with us, we'll show 'em who's boss!" She pointed her finger above her head and made noises that sounded like high-pitched gunfire.

"That's the spirit!" Lord Death cheered Patty on. "Now, I want you all to leave whenever you're ready. Arrangements have been made so that you'll have the whole place to yourselves. A representative of the owner will be there to greet you." As they all turned to go, he added one last thought, "Remember, kids! Good luck, and have fun!"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Whoa," Black Star breathed, echoing the thoughts of the other six around him.

The inside of the Alamo Grand really was just that—_grand_. The ceiling of the hotel lobby stretched many stories above their heads, a gigantic, glimmering chandelier hanging from it and illuminating the entire room with dancing crystal light. Smaller golden light fixtures were hung from the deep, burgundy walls just out of arm's reach. The front desk was located against the left wall of the room, and the right was almost covered by an ornate set of double doors about twenty feet high. It was impressive, to say the least, and they'd only walked in about four steps.

"Yes," the man who'd met them at the door (he hadn't offered his name) hummed impatiently, glancing sideways at their awed expressions. When he continued, it was in a vaguely condescending voice. "As requested, the building has been emptied of all guests and employed personnel for the duration of your _stay_." He uttered the last word as though it left an unpleasant taste in his mouth, and Maka couldn't help but raise an offended eyebrow. "The elevators there—" he indicated the left wall "—lead to the rooms, as do the stairs to their right. The restaurant and pool are down that way—" he pointed toward a hallway against the back wall of the lobby "—and through there—" he finally motioned toward the giant doors to their right "—is the casino. I have been given orders to inform you that you are welcome to go anywhere you please and use any of our facilities. Provided of course that you do not…" he looked Black Star up and down and said scathingly, "_damage_ anything."

Black Star's eyes flashed in indignation. "Why you—"

"_Don't_," Tsubaki hissed, pinching him on the arm as Maka shot him a warning glance.

The man only smirked as if to prove his point. "One last thing. Note that I have ensured the location of every dollar, every dime, every _penny_ this building holds. Our casino vaults are well hidden and guarded. If so much as one cent should find itself misplaced upon your departure, I will not allow the blame to be put on the _ghosts_. Understand?"

Maka bit back a remark, but thankfully Kid stepped forward and said in a calm voice, "Of course. Thank you for your kind hospitality. We will do our best to make sure our investigation betters you and all the hotel's employees, so that you can continue to welcome guests in such a friendly manner." He smiled (though it looked more like a smirk) as the man fell silent and glared at him, before turning and striding out of the building without another word, slamming the front door behind him.

"Can you believe that guy?" Black Star demanded as soon as the door was shut. "Like we'd even think to steal from this place. Who the hell does he think we are, juvenile delinquents?"

"Probably," Kid answered seriously, walking further into the lobby and looking all around. "Must not have much experience with teenagers."

"Especially not ones that know how to handle him," Liz said with an impressed smile, nudging her meister on the arm. He flashed a half-grin, before stepping away from her and continuing to inspect the room. Maka noticed a brief streak of disappointment cross Liz's face, but in a heartbeat it was gone.

"So now what?" Soul asked, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Wanna check the place out before it gets dark?"

"That's probably a good idea," Maka agreed. "We should look around for anything suspicious."

"Aw, forget that!" Black Star interrupted, waving a hand in the air. "We're in a five star hotel and casino alone for the whole night! I say we have some fun!"

"I don't know, Black Star," Maka said slowly, unsure. "We don't wanna make a mess or break anything…"

"Think about it this way," he continued to reason. "Don't you think these ghosts are more likely to show themselves if we're not looking for them? You know, like when we least expect it?"

Maka hated to admit it, but he had a point. They probably _did _have a better chance of seeing something out of the ordinary if they were acting, well, ordinary.

She sighed. "Okay," she agreed. "Maybe you're right." She glanced at the others, seeking confirmation.

Kid shrugged. "It's fine with me."

"Sounds like fun!" Patty cheered as Liz smiled in agreement.

"Whatever," Soul offered apathetically. Tsubaki of course would go along with anything that made Black Star happy, so long as he didn't end up breaking anything.

"Alright!" Black Star pumped a fist in the air in victory. "Let's get something to eat, I'm starving!"

The next few hours were spent killing time in the hotel restaurant, which was every bit as fancy as the rest of the hotel. Black Star had insisted they break into the store of drinks behind the bar, and downed almost an entire bottle of some expensive-looking wine (claiming that the guy earlier had told them they had free reign of the 'facilities'). As the time passed, Maka began to worry less about the rude warnings offered by the man who'd greeted them. She also had time to consider their mission a bit more seriously.

It wasn't as though Maka didn't believe in ghosts—she'd seen enough abnormalities in life to know that there were many things she didn't understand or couldn't predict. But she still had a hard time fully comprehending exactly what they were supposed to be doing there. Weren't there professionals who dealt with the paranormal on a daily basis? Even if what Lord Death had said was true, and there was a witch involved, wouldn't they have to go through the ghosts to get to her? Either way the whole situation made Maka uneasy. But, orders were orders. And she was still top of her class, after all. There was no way she was about to disobey a direct order and likely get herself kicked out of the academy.

But then there were Liz's words to think about as well. The next day was in fact Halloween, the day when—according to the stories—spirits were supposed to be the strongest due to the unnatural link between life and afterlife. If something happened the next day, would Maka and her team be able to hold their own against the ghosts? Which raised another question—How do you fight ghosts anyway?

"Hey, Maka, you okay?"

Maka jumped at the voice so close to her ear and turned to see Soul staring at her, a slightly concerned expression on his face. She smiled and shook her head. "I'm fine," she answered honestly. "Just thinking about this whole thing."

"It's weird, huh?" he agreed with a frown. "I still don't think I get it…"

"Yeah, me neither. But if Lord Death thinks there's something we can do, then we've gotta try, right?"

He shook his head and chuckled. "You're never gonna stop being such a goody-goody, are you?"

Maka put on a mock glare, feigning indignation. "And _you're_ never gonna stop being a lazy good-for-nothing."

He grinned and rested his forehead against hers. "Nope," he answered simply. She laughed, before lifting her chin until her lips touched his.

It had been almost a year since Maka and Soul had started dating officially, which had for some reason come as no surprise to everyone but them. It had been easier than Maka had expected—Soul going from friend to boyfriend in her mind. Even now, they didn't really act any different around each other than they always had (save for the occasional moments like the present). In truth, their relationship was better than ever.

"Hey, get a room, guys!" Black Star hollered from a few tables away, laughing louder and more obnoxiously than usual (no doubt owing to the alcohol in his blood stream). Maka and Soul separated and glared at him.

"Actually," Kid began, standing up and stretching his arms, "we should _all_ get rooms. It's getting dark, after all."

As they walked back into the lobby, thunder crashed from somewhere above, making all seven of them jump in surprise. Glancing up at the windows above the front door, they could see that a pounding rain had begun to fall outside.

"Guess we're not leaving anytime soon," Liz muttered dejectedly as they made for the stairs.

They decided to claim two sets of suites on the first floor, so they could use the stairs to travel between their rooms and the ground floor. Each suite had two rooms connected by a bathroom in between. Maka, Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki took one suite while Kid, Liz, and Patty claimed the other. Upon walking into their room, Maka was unsurprised (but not unimpressed) to see the same grandeur that decorated the rest of the place.

The room was almost as large as her entire apartment back home, with two king-size beds and a far wall made entirely of reinforced glass. Various amenities were set about the walls, such as a closet, two dressers, and a television stand. There was a beautiful stone fireplace set behind transparent, gold-trimmed grates, and a bathroom that was roughly the size of her own bedroom. Across the bathroom was the door that led to the other half of their suite—or Black Star and Tsubaki's room. If they weren't here for work, staying in a place like this would be heaven.

"Geez, this place is nuts," Soul observed, striding into the room and tossing his bag onto the bed closest to the window-wall and glancing through it at the pouring rain.

"You're telling me," Maka agreed, sitting down on the edge of the other bed and pulling her hair out of its pigtails. "We should probably get some rest. We'll need it in the morning." She pulled her hairbrush out of her bag and began to comb through her hair. As an afterthought, she added, "Especially Black Star. Something tells me he won't be up for much investigating after tonight."

Soul laughed and dropped down next to her on the mattress. "You've got a point there. But you know, Black Star was right about one thing."

Maka set her brush on the bedside table and looked at him curiously. "What's that?"

He gave her a sideways glance. "We're alone in a five star hotel." He grinned and brushed her hair aside, his fingers lingering against the side of her face. Maka's heart leaped as he leaned toward her. "Why not have a little fun?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"This is awesome!"

Liz shook her head and smiled as her sister flopped down on her back on her new bed. "It's so comfy!" she said happily. "Sis, you gotta try this!" As the older sister sat down on her own bed, Patty twisted to she was lying on her stomach. She propped her head on her hands and looked innocently at her sister. "So, you gonna tell him tonight?"

Liz nearly choked on the air she was breathing. "W-What?"

"Come _on!_" Patty urged, kicking her legs back and forth through the air. "This hotel is beautiful! It's kinda romantic, don't you think? It's the perfect setting!"

Liz shook her head violently. "No way! We're here on a mission, remember? You know how he is when he's got orders from Lord Death. He won't let anything distract him. So I… I can't."

Patty cocked her head to the side. "Why?"

"I just told you why," Liz answered, ready to drop the subject. Patty only raised an eyebrow, knowing she wasn't being entirely truthful. Liz sighed uncertainly. "…He doesn't think of me that way, okay?"

"How do you know?"

"I just know!" the older sister snapped. Patty continued to eye her sister, completely unaffected. "We're just a matching set to him. His weapons. That's all." She didn't mean that to sound as bitter as it had, but she was a bit distressed at the moment.

Patty frowned at Liz and said seriously, "You know that's not true."

Liz was quiet for a moment as Patty stared her down. "…Okay, you're right," she finally said in a softer voice. "He's our friend, I know. But I still just…" she let her sentence trail off, unsure exactly what she 'just' was. For almost three months now Patty had been trying to get her sister to tell their meister that she was hiding more serious feelings for him, and for three months Liz had been pushing her sister's urgings away and acting as normal as she could in his company. As far as she knew, he was completely oblivious to the sisters' whispers behind his back, and she was determined to keep it that way for as long as she could.

"Then what are you waiting for?" Patty asked cheerily, leaping off the bed and pulling Liz to her feet. Before the older sister could protest, Patty pulled open the bathroom door and shoved Liz inside, before closing the door tight and leaving her alone. "He's right through there! I'll cheer you on!" she said through the door.

"Patty, no! Let me out! Hey!" Liz whispered, but her only response was a muffled giggling from the other side of the wooden door. With a disgruntled sigh, she turned around. _Well, nowhere else to go…_

When she opened the opposite bathroom door, she found her meister sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the door, rolling up his shirt sleeves. He looked up at her entrance. "Hey," he greeted her simply.

She swallowed hard. "H-Hey," she stuttered, before shaking her head and regaining her composure. Her moment of weakness hadn't gone unnoticed, however.

Kid frowned at her. "Is something wrong?"

She shook her head, crossing her arms. "Nah, Patty wanted to watch some TV so I thought I'd come see what you were up to."

"Oh," he replied, seeming satisfied with her answer. "Not much really, just unpacking." He stretched both arms out in front of him and adjusted his right sleeve a fraction of an inch. Satisfied that both were now of equal length, he dropped his arms and leaned backward. "What do you think of this whole thing?"

She sat down next to him and thought a moment. To be honest, the whole mission just short of terrified her. After all, ghosts were never something any sane person should want to mess with. Especially on Halloween. "I don't know…" she finally answered. "It's kind of unsettling, I guess. Even if there really is a witch involved, I still wonder why Lord Death sent _us_, you know?"

"I've been wondering the same thing," Kid replied, surprising her somewhat. "We're trained to fight witches, but from what it seems there isn't a witch directly involved in what's been happening here."

"What do you mean?"

He turned to face her and she backed away a bit in alarm. He didn't seem to notice. "Reports all point to a typical mass haunting. It may be that a witch is responsible for the spirits' appearance, but there doesn't seem to be one present. Besides, if there was a witch here, Maka would've sensed it by now." He had a point there. Maka's soul perception was unusually high, and there was no chance of her missing a soul as powerful as that of a witch. In the past year, she'd even become adept at seeing through a witch's Soul Protect ability. So it was highly unlikely that one was hiding anywhere in the immediate vicinity.

Kid turned and stared at the door across the room, squinting his eyes in thought. "So it seems that more than anything, my father wants us to discover _why_ this is happening, rather than put an end to it."

"Maybe you're right," Liz conceded. "But if that's the case, why send us overnight? Why not give us a few hours during the day to investigate?"

He shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted. "There's something strange about this place. I guess we've just got to use the time we have to figure it out."

Kid seemed to have a habit of over-thinking things, Liz marveled to herself. Any time they were given a mission, he went along with it without question. But somewhere along the line he had begun to wonder at his father's motives. Maybe as he grew older he was beginning to understand the ways of the grim reaper. After all, he was one as well. And more than that, Liz realized, usually he was right.

It was one of the many things she liked about him.

"Hey… Kid?"

He glanced over at her inquisitively. "What?"

All of a sudden, Liz's heart was pounding. What was she doing? This was way too sudden, wasn't it? Why was she listening to Patty anyway? Life had been great up until now, did she really want to ruin it? As all these questions rushed their way into her head at once, her brief spurt of resolve seemed to weaken, and she answered with a defeated sigh, "Nothing. Never mind."

He eyed her for a short second, then shrugged and rose to his feet. "Well, I'm gonna go take a look around."

"Now?" Liz asked, surprised. She glanced at the clock on the nightstand. "It's almost 9:30, why not just wait until tomorrow morning?"

Kid shook his head. "I don't want to waste any time. Besides, I won't be long. Half an hour maybe."

Liz bit her lip, suddenly uneasy for some reason. Though, it could've had something to do with the fact that they were spending the night in a haunted hotel. Yeah. "Just… be careful, okay?"

He stopped with his hand on the knob and turned to look her in the eye. "Don't worry," he assured her with a friendly smile, before disappearing through the door and closing it tight.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Hey… Wait…"

Soul lifted his head from the crook of Maka's neck to look her in the eye, making her squirm uncomfortably under his questioning gaze. "We're… here for work," she continued, her voice light and airy as her breath slowed to its normal rhythm. "It just doesn't feel right."

He was silent for a moment, but before long the corners of his lips turned up in an understanding smile. He lifted himself up and off the bed, giving her room to sit up. She re-fastened the top button of her blouse and attempted to straighten her hair, feeling slightly silly. "I'm sorry," she muttered sheepishly.

Soul only shook his head, pulling his shirt back on. "Nah, it's cool," he assured her. "You're right, we're working right now." As soon as his head was free, he strode over and kissed her on the cheek, showing her that he wasn't mad or disappointed, which made her immensely relieved. "We should get some sleep if we wanna be up early to check the place out, huh?"

Maka smiled gratefully. "Yeah. We can't let everybody else outdo us, can we?"

"Exactly."

As they got into their respective beds and turned out the lights, Maka couldn't help but think how lucky she was. She knew for a fact that not every guy would be as understanding as Soul with a 'goody-goody' girlfriend like her. But he let her be herself, and that was what made them so perfect for each other—both as a couple and as weapon and meister. They were the DWMA's top team, after all.

But even so, she couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen. Hoping she was just being paranoid, Maka finally allowed herself to drift off to sleep.

-0-0-0-0-0-

When Liz woke up, the first thing she realized was that she'd left the television on, as its low, dull volume was still reverberating throughout the dark room. With a disgruntled sigh she got up to turn it off, before realizing another minor detail: she was still in Kid's room.

It was all Liz could do not to audibly smack herself on the forehead. She'd fallen asleep in Kid's hotel room. Probably on his bed. And for how long? She glanced at the clock and noticed with a muffled yelp that it read 11:53. Almost two and a half hours. He probably hadn't been happy when he got back… And what in the world would Patty think she'd been up to? …She decided not to think about that.

As quietly as she could she turned and crept for the bathroom door that would lead back to her own room. As she did so however, her eyes crossed over the other bed and she did a double take.

It was empty.

With a frown, Liz stepped over toward the door and flicked the light switch, flooding the room with light. As her eyes adjusted she glanced around and quickly learned that she was alone. _That's weird…_ she thought. _Maybe he's in the bathroom._ She moved to the door and knocked twice. When no answer came, she knocked again. "Kid?" she called carefully. No reply. She opened the door tentatively, but found the lavish bathroom predictably empty.

Getting anxious, she made her way through the bathroom and opened the opposite door that led to her and Patty's room. Her sister was sitting on the edge of her bed, eyes glues to the flashing TV. At the sudden intrusion, however, Patty tore her eyes away and looked almost hungrily at Liz.

"Well?" she demanded, her television show forgotten. "What happened? You sure were in there a long time." She smirked and wiggled her eyebrows.

Liz felt her face burn, but she shook it off and said urgently, "Have you seen Kid?"

A blank look crossed Patty's face. "Wasn't… he with you?"

Liz felt her stomach drop. "H-He was… for a little while. He left around 9:30 to look around. I was gonna wait for him, but I guess I fell asleep. I just now woke up and… it looks like he hasn't come back."

Patty looked puzzled. "Maybe he got lost," she suggested uncertainly.

"Kid? Lost?" Liz scoffed. "Yeah, right." She was starting to get extremely nervous. If Kid hadn't come back, then… where was he?

"Maybe we should go ask the others," Patty said after a moment. Liz agreed and led the way through the main door. Their other suite was just across the hall, and the sisters split up to wake their friends.

Liz went to the door branded 115 and knocked sharply. There was a brief shuffling sound on the other side of the door before it opened in to reveal Tsubaki, clad in pajamas and holding an open book in her left hand. Liz's face must have betrayed her worry, because almost at once Tsubaki asked, "Is everything alright?"

"You haven't seen Kid, have you?"

Tsubaki frowned, making Liz more and more uneasy by the second. "Not since we all came up here a few hours ago. Why?" Biting her lip, Liz explained how he'd gone to investigate and had yet to return.

"He said he'd only be half an hour…" Liz went on. "But that was over two hours ago. Where could he have gone…?"

"Calm down, okay?" Tsubaki attempted to reassure her with a kind smile. "I'm sure he's fine. It probably just took a bit longer to see the whole building than he thought it would."

"I hope you're right…"

Just then, Patty came over from just down the hall, Maka and Soul right behind her. All three of them looked unsettled. Liz shot a hopeful glance at her sister, who shook her head sadly in reply.

"Whazzgoinon?" came a slurred voice from behind Tsubaki, who twisted to the side as Black Star emerged from the dimly-lit room, rubbing his eyes blearily.

"Kid's gone missing," Tsubaki told him.

"_What?_" Black Star exclaimed, now seeming instantly awake. The situation was briefly explained once again.

"I think we should split up and look for him," Maka proposed almost at once. "He might still be looking around, but given the stories of this place, we shouldn't take any—"

She stopped abruptly as the lights suddenly flicked off, seeping them all in complete darkness.

"Well that was random," Black Star observed after a second of silence.

"Maybe a breaker got tripped?" Patty suggested.

"I don't think so," Liz said quietly. "It must be midnight." It had been less than ten minutes since she'd awoken, at 11:53. She couldn't be sure of the time, but she was convinced that it couldn't be a coincidence.

"Midnight," Tsubaki mused. "That means it's…"

Maka gasped and Soul let out an almost ironic chuckle. Liz could practically hear the wry, mirthless smile in his voice as he said, "Happy Halloween."

It had begun.

* * *

><p>DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUNNNNN! (as a fair warning, I'll probably do that a lot, haha)<p>

So like I said, this chapter was like the set-up :D Kinda boring and pointless, but from here on out things start to heat up! heh heh (Also a note on this chapter: they're a bunch of teenagers alone in a fancy hotel for the night. What would you do, seriously? hahaha)

Hope I can get this done before Halloween... If not that doesn't mean I'll quit or anything, no worries :D haha

'Til next update, oMM OUT!

-oMM


	2. Did We Leave the Tables Like That?

Sooooooo about that whole "finishing this before Halloween" thing... Yeahhhh obviously not gonna happen, haha. But I'm still gonna finish it, don't worry. It's only gonna be like four or five chapters, so it shouldn't go too far into November (except for the fact that I'm going to an anime con later this week, so I won't be able to write... heh heh. But I WILL be cosplaying two Soul Eater groups! I even made a Lord Death costume for a friend! It's super sick :D haha. ...But that's irrelevant XD). But I'll finish, don't worry :D

Here's chapter 2! This one's very eventful, too, mind you. Lotsa fun stuff happenin' :D Well, fun for me, maybe not for the gang... haha

* * *

><p>"So… Anybody got a flashlight?"<p>

There was a series of shuffling sounds and before long both Maka and Tsubaki emerged from their respective rooms, each brandishing a flashlight and with it dimly illuminating the darkened hallway, casting high, dancing shadows across the walls.

"Now what?" Black Star continued, looking around the hallway.

Maka shone the flashlight at him and he raised a hand to shield his eyes. "I still say we split up. We have to find Kid, and we can cover more ground that way."

"Split up?" Liz repeated, dumbfounded. "_Split up?_ Don't you guys watch TV? If we split up, they'll start picking us off one by one!"

"Calm down, Liz," Maka said gently. "That's not gonna happen, okay? Besides, I was thinking two groups, considering the fact that we only have two flashlights. That way nobody will be alone." When Liz continued to look apprehensive, Maka added, "You wanna find him, don't you?" The older sister lowered her head and nodded. "Alright, it's settled then. Black Star, Tsubaki, and I will search the hotel rooms from this floor up. Soul, you take Liz and Patty and check out the main floor and basement. Then we'll all meet up and if we haven't found anything, we'll look in the casino together."

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Man, this place is just way too big," Soul complained with a disgruntled sigh as they stepped into the hotel lobby. Thunder crashed outside just as a bright flash of lightning briefly illuminated the high walls, making all three of them jump in surprise. "I don't even know where to look."

"Well he can't have left, 'cuz of the storm," Patty observed, pointing toward the tall, rain-stricken windows. "So he's gotta be here somewhere."

It didn't take them long to discover that they were the only ones in the lobby. And since the stairs to the basement were located behind the front desk, they decided to head there next.

As Soul led the way down the narrow stairway, relying on the soft glow of the flashlight to light his path, he started to feel more and more like they were being watched. He didn't say anything, for fear of both sounding cliché and paranoid and frightening the sisters behind him, but it seemed as though which each step the air got thicker. As soon as he reached the basement floor, however, the sensation vanished, leaving behind only the cold, stale air which echoed off the stone walls. Slightly unnerved, he shook his head and turned away from the stairs.

The landing led into a long hallway with two doors on each side and one at the far end. The floor and walls were made of stone, the doors of simple wood. It was strange that the basement seemed like an entirely different place than the rest of the hotel, which was so lavishly decorated. It felt as though they had left the hotel and were now in some much older, much creepier place.

"This is weird…" Patty said quietly, her voice echoing eerily off the walls. "It's so bare down here."

"I guess when they did all that work they just didn't bother renovating down here," Soul noticed. "Guests don't usually see this place, anyway."

"I don't like this," Liz whispered, her eyes darting from door to door. "It just doesn't feel right."

Soul swallowed hard. To be honest, he was kind of thinking the same way. "Let's just look around and get back upstairs."

He led the way to the first door on the left, behind which was a very small supply closet. It housed all sorts of sheets, towels, and spare pillows, as well as cleaning supplies like brooms, mops, buckets, vacuum cleaners, and more. It took a quick once-over to realize that there was no one—suspicious or otherwise—inside.

The second room on the left was much larger than the first, and housed an ancient-looking furnace. It was excessively warm in this room, but also very empty save for the roaring heating system.

Across from the boiler room was the second door on the right side of the hallway. As Soul approached it, however, he noticed something very strange—there were voices coming from behind it. Over a score of them by the sound of it, all speaking so fast that he couldn't tell what any one of them was saying. In accompaniment of the voices was a chorus of clinking and banging sounds, like tableware being stacked on top of each other. A brief glance at Liz and Patty showed him that by the startled looks on their faces, they'd heard it to.

"W-What is that?" Liz stuttered in a voice that was barely a whisper, her eyes wide.

Patty shook her head. "There's not supposed to be anyone else here…"

"Only one way to find out," Soul said. Liz grabbed his arm tightly in fear as he took a deep breath, reaching a hand out. In one swift movement, he grabbed the metal knob and pulled the door open.

The melody of voices stopped instantly.

Behind the door was a kitchen. It was long and wide, with tables down the center and numerous stoves and ovens across the side walls, in between shelves stacked high with pots, pans, and fine china. The place was spotlessly clean—and decidedly empty. No trace of the sounds they'd heard seconds ago remained.

None of them said a word. They all knew what they'd heard, so there was no way all three of them had imagined it. And yet here they were, standing in the doorway to the dark, empty kitchen. Each of them was afraid to ask the question they were thinking: Where had the voices come from?

"Let's… take a look around," Soul finally began, his voice slightly hoarse. He walked into the room and strode to the left of the center tables, Liz still maintaining her death-grip on his arm as Patty moved to inspect the right side of the kitchen. And once again, there was still no sign of Kid.

"Can we get out of here now?" Liz pleaded in a low voice. "This place is…" Her voice trailed off as a light scraping sound suddenly echoed across the room. Looking over the center tables, they noticed a section of shelving piled with expensive-looking plates and dishes almost directly behind where Patty was standing. And that the plates were rising slowly into the air with no visible means of doing so.

"Watch out!" Soul yelled as Patty spun around, just as the dishes flung themselves from the shelves. Patty screamed and turned again, shielding her head in her arms, as several of the plates collided with her back, shattering instantly. More of them missed her and instead smashed against the floor, walls, tables, anything in their path. Soul grabbed Liz and shoved her down to duck behind the nearest table, which he then vaulted over, dodging china left and right. The kitchen that was silent only moments ago was now filled with the deafening sounds of smashing glass as the tableware relentlessly attacked every inch of the room. As quickly as he could, Soul snatched Patty and made a mad dash for the door. He turned to Liz and shouted, "Come on!" She shot an apprehensive look above the table which sheltered her, before closing her eyes and throwing herself out from behind it. Luckily, she made it to the door without being hit.

Once they were safe on the other side, Soul slammed the door shut and leaned against it, breathing heavily. "You guys okay?" he asked, glancing at the sisters. Liz looked unharmed, but Patty was almost covered in scratches. There was one rather nasty one on the back of her right shoulder, but the rest looked thin and shallow. She winced and gave a thumbs-up, saying that overall she was alright.

"Can we _please_ go back upstairs now?" Liz asked insistently, helping her sister to her feet. "We need to treat these cuts."

Soul nodded and picked up his flashlight. He'd seen a lot of strange things in the past, but this one was a first. Living tableware angrily throwing itself at passersby wasn't something you saw every day, and it wasn't something you could explain away either. There was something going on here, that was for sure.

It was then that he started to consider the possibility that the place really was haunted.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs, he turned around and shined the light of the flashlight on the fourth door, the one they hadn't entered. What if Kid was in there? They had to at least check, didn't they? Besides, for some reason, he felt like there was something important behind that door.

"What is it?" Liz asked as Soul continued to stand there in silence.

"Hold on a sec," he answered vaguely, walking toward the door.

"What are you doing? Let's go," she continued to insist.

"Shouldn't we at least check out this room, too?" He reached out to grab the doorknob, but as soon as his fingers touched it he felt an intense heat coming from it and a sharp electrical shock shot through his body. He yelled in pain and surprise and stumbled backward, dropping the flashlight.

"What?" Liz demanded. "What happened?" He shook his head and tentatively reached for the doorknob again, his fingers still shaking from the jolt. This time he could feel the heat before he touched it, so he withdrew his hand and took a deep breath.

"Nothing, let's go." Without another word, he picked up the flashlight and led the way back upstairs.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Are you sure you're alright?"

Patty nodded, a calm smile on her face. They had just finished creating makeshift bandages for the few of her deeper cuts out of spare sheets, and all six of them were now gathered in the lobby. Maka, Black Star, and Tsubaki had had rather a more uneventful time searching the hotel floors. "Don't worry, I told you I'm fine. Really."

Maka smiled at her answer, glad that the incident hadn't been worse. When Soul had explained to her what had happened, it had troubled her for two reasons. The first of course was that she too had no possible explanation as to why this could have happened, other than some strange paranormal occurrence. The second was that she could sense in her partner's voice that he was extremely uneasy about the whole thing, even if he didn't let it on. This frightened her more than anything, because in all the time she'd known him, he'd never been one to scare easily.

Maka stepped away from Patty and noticed that Liz was sitting a little farther away from the others on an armchair, her head in her hands. Puzzled, she strode over and placed a hand on Liz's shoulder. "Are you okay?" Maka asked as Liz raised her head, revealing a troubled expression.

"What do you think?" she asked rhetorically. "My sister just got attacked by kitchenware. And we still have no idea where Kid is. So far this mission is a complete disaster!" She let out a defeated wail and hid her face again.

Maka rubbed Liz's shoulder, trying to comfort her. "But Patty's fine," she insisted. "None of her injuries were anything close to serious. And, well… there are still some places we haven't looked, right? We'll find Kid, I'm sure of it." She tried not to let her apprehension show in her voice. It was hard to reassure someone when you yourself were worried for the same reason.

Liz looked up and smiled somewhat weakly. "I guess you're right," she conceded, rising from the chair.

"Alright," Maka addressed the group finally. "Well, since we're here, wanna check out the casino?" There were murmured agreements all around, before Maka took up her flashlight and led the way through the great oak doors at the far right of the hotel lobby.

Even in the pitch darkness, it was easy to tell that the casino area was huge. They could each sense an emptiness all around, proving that the walls and ceiling were far from where they stood. As Maka and Tsubaki shined their flashlights around the room, lights bounced off of card tables, dice boards, slot machines, dealer booths, and many of the like. In the center of the room was a great fountain with what looked like a crystal cylinder rising from its center. The fountain wasn't running of course, but Maka guessed that had it been, the cylinder would be filled with water, reflecting light across the entire casino.

"Let's do this," Black Star said with a slight shrug. They split up and began wandering the wide space, weaving in and out of tables, calling for their lost friend all the while. For a good fifteen minutes, nothing happened.

As the beam of Maka's flashlight passed over a nearby table, something beneath it reflected the light back at her. She crouched beneath it and grabbed the small object which had caught the light, bringing it out to look at it more closely.

"Oh, no," she mumbled upon seeing what it was. Just as she was about to stand and call for the others, something took firm hold of her left ankle. She screamed in surprise as she was yanked from her kneeling position onto her back, the flashlight dropping from her hand and the mysterious force pulling her roughly into the darkness.

"Maka!" Soul yelled from nearby. She saw the light of her flashlight pass quickly over her, before a pair of strong hands grabbed her beneath the arms and pulled with all their might. She gritted her teeth as the strange grip on her ankle tightened and heaved in response.

As the others drew near, Tsubaki's flashlight was trained on whatever force had firm hold of Maka's leg. Glancing down, she noticed only a dense mist swirling around her, but no visible hand or rope or anything that could or should have such a substantial feeling against her skin. Yet another thing she couldn't explain.

As the light touched it, the mist seemed to hasten its charge, pulling harder than ever.

"Hey!" Soul shouted in surprise as he was dragged forward along with it, before regaining his footing and slowing them down. "Help me!" he yelled through gritted teeth. As soon as he reached them, Black Star grabbed one of Maka's arms and added his strength to the contest. It was like a horrific game of tug-of-war between two football teams, and Maka was the rope. She felt as though her limbs could be torn from their sockets at any second.

Then all of a sudden, the hold on her ankle disappeared. The cancelling of the force caused her to be thrown backward, sprawling unceremoniously across both Soul and Black Star, who were just as surprised by this as she was. As the mist dissipated, a whispering voice sounded. It was difficult to make out, as it sounded as though it was coming and passing with the wind.

"_Your blood…" _it repeated twice, before fading from existence, leaving six shaken teenagers in its wake.

"Are you okay?" Soul asked Maka as they all separated from their pile and sat upright.

"I-I think so," she answered. Her whole body was aching dully from the strain, and her ankle felt as though it was wrapped in a fiery anklet. Tsubaki knelt down and gingerly squeezed a spot next to her ankle bone, making Maka gasp in pain.

"It's not broken," Tsubaki told them, "but I think it might be sprained. You should be careful for a while."

Maka shook her head. "No time," she answered, ignoring the twinge in her ankle as she shifted so they could all see her. She held out her hand, which had been closed around the object she'd found before the strange attack. "Look."

There was an audible gasp throughout the group. "That's one of Kid's rings!" Patty observed as Liz put a hand over her mouth. "But… how did it get here?" They all fell silent, glancing around at each other as though no one dared answer that question.

Maka swallowed hard, finding her voice again. "Well… we can't just sit here in the dark. There are still some places we haven't looked. How about the restaurant and pool? They're on this floor, aren't they?"

As Soul helped Maka stand, the words the misty voice had spoken to her rung through her ears. _'Your blood.' _What did that mean? Did they have something against her specifically? Was that why this was happening? But even if that could be true, she had never set foot in the place before that evening. It was next to impossible for these beings to know her, wasn't it? She glanced sideways at her partner to see a troubled expression on his face, and she knew he must have heard the voice as well and was just as confused by it as she was. Somehow, however, she was glad he didn't say anything.

Since they'd spent some time in the hotel restaurant earlier that night, they knew their way around it fairly well, even in the dark. Upon first entering they noticed it was, like most other areas of the building, eerily quiet and filled with a suffocating blackness.

"Kid?" Patty called, hands cupped around her mouth. "You in here?" Predictably, there was no response.

Tsubaki stepped farther into the room and shone her flashlight across the tables. "Guys?" she began apprehensively after a moment. "Did we leave the tables like that?" Maka limped toward her to get a better look, and noticed with a jolt that every chair in the room was flipped upside down and set on their tables, as though someone was about to mop the floors.

"That'd be a no," Soul replied slowly, staring at the strange sight before them.

"Aw, come on," Black Star scoffed, walking over to inspect the nearest table. "It's probably just that jerk from before tryin' to scare us. But it won't work!" he shouted to the room at large. "These kind of stupid pranks are kid stuff!" He laughed and shoved two of the chairs off the table. They tumbled over and landed on the floor with a loud series of bangs that echoed across the quiet dining hall.

"Would you cut it out?" Maka demanded in a harsh whisper. "Look, we don't know who or what is doing this, but I don't think it's something we should mess—" She stopped short as the two flashlights went out simultaneously, plunging them into complete darkness. Not a second later, there was a brief scraping sound followed by a pained yell.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki shouted as the flashlights inexplicably came back to life, twin beams of light stretching across the floor. Black Star was on his knees, teeth clenched and eyes darting wildly around. He pressed one hand against the back of his head as he stood slowly and Tsubaki rushed to his side. "What happened?" she asked, sounding worried.

"I don't know, something hit me in the head," he answered angrily, still looking around. Finally his eyes rested on one of the two chairs he's knocked over, which was now lying resolutely on the wooden floor to his right, much further away from the table than it had been seconds before.

"Maybe we should get out of here," Liz suggested carefully, eyeing the chair warily as though she expected it to jump into the air and do a jig.

"Are you kidding?" Black Star replied, the light, joking tone gone from his voice. "And give whoever's doing this the satisfaction of scaring us off? I don't think so. Who do they think they're dealing with, huh? I'm not gonna—" He broke off and looked around, eyes narrowed.

"You guys hear that?" Patty whispered. No one needed to answer; it was obvious that they all heard the faint, steady clinking sound originating from somewhere nearby.

As Maka passed her flashlight beam behind the bar, she halted it on the wine racks stacked against the wall. It was difficult to see, but when she looked closely she could see that every single bottle was vibrating in its spot on the rack, creating the strange sound.

"How are they…?" Black Star wondered absently as he climbed over the bar to get a closer look. As he drew near, the bottles began to vibrate more quickly, until each one appeared vaguely blurred to the eye. He reached toward one cautiously, and the vibrating becoming faster and louder. "What the—?"

"Black Star, watch out!" Maka's warning came just in time. Black Star jerked his hand back as the bottle shattered instantly, drenching him in pale golden liquid and forcing him to turn and duck to avoid the hundreds of tiny shards of glass that flew in every direction. Before anyone could say another word, the bottle next to it smashed apart the same way, followed by the next and the next, until bottle after bottle was exploding on the racks, sending miniscule daggers of broken glass flying out across the room and soaking the wooden restaurant floor with fine wines of various hues.

"I'm with Liz, let's get out of here!" Soul shouted above the din, grabbing Maka and throwing her over his shoulder before she could utter a word. They all sprinted out of the dining area as quickly as they could, avoiding flying glass left and right as they went. After they'd reached the hall and slammed the double doors closed behind them, the sound of breaking glass stopped abruptly.

"Well that was weird," Black Star grunted, glancing suspiciously at the doors through which they'd just escaped.

"Weird?" Maka snapped. "That was your fault! You're the one that made them angry!"

"Made _who_ angry?" he demanded, glaring at her. She faltered in her reply. In all honesty, she had no answer to that question, and Black Star knew it. "Look, there's gotta be a normal explanation for this. I'm tellin' you, it's gotta be that bastard from yesterday messin' with us! You heard what he said, right? About not damaging anything? Well, looks to me like he's wreckin' the place on purpose so we get busted for it!"

"Black Star, you're jumping to conclusions," Tsubaki attempted to calm her partner down. "How could that be true? He left before the storm, remember?" Maka didn't say anything, but she too had a feeling that the man they'd met upon their arrival had nothing to do with what had been happening since midnight. But that didn't mean she had any idea as to the truth behind it, of course. And from the looks on her friends' faces, neither did any of them.

"Maybe we should take a break for a bit," Soul suggested, putting a hand on Black Star's shoulder and glancing around at them, his gaze lingering on Maka. "We don't know what's doing this or what they're capable of, right? If we keep this up, someone might get hurt."

Maka shook her head. "That's exactly why we have to keep looking," she said solemnly. She noticed the worry on Liz and Patty's faces momentarily intensify as they all understood what she meant. There was no further discussion on the matter.

A short way farther down the hallway was the entrance to the hotel swimming pool. The area was just as dark as the hall outside, but they could sense the wide, open space before them as they entered. The barely audible sound of water swimming in and out of the filters echoed off the walls, mixing with the sound of their breathing and creating a steady rhythm. Maka and Tsubaki waved their flashlights around the room slowly, taking in every inch of it that they could. The dim beams played across the still, watery surface of the pool and reflected odd shadows on the walls. The water looked abnormally dark, but Maka figured that must have been due to the absence of natural light in the room.

Still, there was something strange about the water, something off. Maka squinted her eyes and led the way into the room to get a closer look, taking care not to step too heavily with her sprained ankle. Their group dispersed somewhat as they glanced around the wide, open area, but Maka headed straight for the pool, as though it was beckoning to her. When she reached the edge of the cement, she crouched down and stared into it, shining her flashlight directly down. It was then that she noticed that the water wasn't just dark, it was _black_. The liquid itself was black as night. Puzzled, she reached her free hand toward it to test it out.

"Maka," Soul said her name from somewhere behind her. She jumped and turned to face him, halting her arm in the air. "What are you doing?"

She shook her head, as if clearing the last remnants of a dream. "Nothing," she said, feeling slightly foolish. She started to withdraw her hand and stand up when all of a sudden the same unseen force she'd felt in the casino closed tightly around her wrist. Her eyes widened as she felt herself lose her balance on the cement and she was pulled headfirst into the water before she could scream.

"Maka!" she heard the muffled sound of Soul calling her name. Reflexes taking over, she grabbed the edge of the cement with her free left hand as fast as she could, using it to pull her head back above the water. The surface was slippery to the touch due to the splash from her fall, making it difficult to hold on. Thankfully, she didn't have to strain for long, as within seconds the other five appeared above her. Soul and Black Star reached down and grabbed her arms, and instantly the grip on her right wrist vanished.

Even though the bodiless hold on her had gone, it now felt as though the black water itself was holding her in place. It was almost as though she'd fallen into a pool full of sticky gelatin. It clung to her skin like static electricity and refused to let go. "Hurry!" she shouted frantically, and Soul and Black Star quickened their efforts. Soon she felt her body slip free of the strange binding liquid, which swirled around her looking no more solid than that eerie mist itself.

In a matter of seconds, she was pulled free and was standing shakily on the edge of the water, which had grown still once again. "You okay?" Soul demanded, not letting go of her arm as she shook herself off, noticing that her clothes had been stained with the black liquid.

"Y-Yeah," she replied, steadying herself. "It was just—" She stopped abruptly as the same mist from before began to creep across the floor, settling on the water behind her.

"_Your blood…"_ the breathy, whispering voice said once again. Maka could feel her blood chill as an icy wind swept over her. _"Your blood…"_

Then, all of a sudden, Maka felt a twinge strike through her injured ankle. She cried out as her strength momentarily left her and she felt herself falling sideways toward the pool. Before she hit the water, however, she felt a hand grab her arm and yank her back.

"Watch out!" her partner shouted as he forced her away from the edge of the pool. Her hurt ankle still seemed adamant at remaining useless, however, and she stumbled with a pained grunt. Soul turned sideways to steady her, and in doing so seemed to slide on the slippery, wet cement, stained black with the dark liquid. Maka barely caught sight of his wide eyes as he lost his balance and fell backward with a surprised yell.

"Soul!" she screamed, reaching out to grab him. But she was too late. He'd already been swallowed by the surface of the eerie, black pool.

This time there was no splash, only three ripples that extended across the surface before fading into the darkness, leaving the water still as the grave.

* * *

><p>Oooooooo... What's gonna happen? I wonder... Oh, wait! I already know! hahaha<p>

Reviews are like candy on Halloween, guys! Remember that! haha

-oMM


	3. This Place Is Nuts

Whew, sorry this took so long :( Like I said last week, con prep and stuff, hahaha.

But I'm back! And we left off at a cliffhanger, so let's jump right in, shall we? (hyuk hyuk hyuk)

* * *

><p>Maka ran to the edge of the pool so fast she almost slid right off it. Landing on her knees on the damp, slick cement, she leaned over and stared frantically into the murky water, her eyes darting back and forth, combing its surface for even the slightest sign or whisper of movement.<p>

There was none.

She felt the other four come to stand around her and join her in her frightened search. "This is bad…" Black Star observed, and Maka could sense the unease in his voice, which only served to heighten her own growing sense of dread. Nothing scared Black Star. Nothing.

"W-Where is he?" Liz stuttered, her voice breaking in fear. Maka wished more than anything that she had an answer to that question. But as before, the black liquid was as still and silent as it had been when they'd entered. Not one ripple, one bubble, one breath of fluctuation in its rigidity broke the glass-like surface.

After a horrible moment of complete and stifling silence, Black Star uttered a frustrated growl, before stepping away from the edge of the pool and yanking his wine-stained shirt off over his head, tossing it uselessly aside.

Tsubaki's eyes widened, as did Maka's as she realized what he was about to do. "Black Star, no—!" Maka shouted, half-rising to her feet as he bounded forward. But barely had her words reached the air when he leaped off the ground, forming himself into a human dagger and diving headfirst into the dark water.

Once again, the liquid seemed to swallow him up, not one drop of it splashing from the smooth surface. Three ripples extended across before fading once more, then silence. Stillness. Nothing.

Shock and fear stretched across the faces of all four girls, who continued to stare at the water with uncertainty. Maka wanted to do something, anything to get her friends out of there to safety, but for all her wanting she could think of nothing that could possibly work. "We have to help them," she said, trying to sound determined but instead sounding almost as desperate as she felt.

"How?" Patty asked, her eyes flitting to meet Maka's. Maka was silent.

She allowed herself to lean just a little closer to the eerie surface of the water, as though the closer she got to it the better the chances were of an idea floating into her brain. No idea came, but instead she thought she heard a sound from below, a sound that hadn't been before. It sounded as though the water were slowly moving back and forth, like she were sitting on the edge lazily swinging her legs to and fro through it. But for all the movement she thought she heard, her eyes saw none. The surface was decidedly still.

Glancing at the others, she saw similar expressions of confusion, leading her to believe that they'd heard exactly what she had. As she opened her mouth to speak, an audible rumble sounded throughout the room, shaking the cement she was knelt on.

As Maka whipped her head around to stare once more at the water, the stillness of its surface broke instantly and what seemed like the entire pool formed itself into a roaring tidal wave, which stretched dozens of feet above her head and soared toward the far right of the room, before crashing down again, throwing most of the water out of the pool and onto the cement. The mist that still clung to the ground seemed to hiss in anger before dissipating and disappearing altogether.

Shocked, Maka glanced back down at the now-almost-empty pool to find Black Star standing at the bottom, shin-deep in the dark liquid, soaking wet and breathing heavily. _He must have used his soul wave attack,_ Maka realized almost instantly.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki called from beside Maka. "Are you okay?" Black Star turned sideways and it was then that Maka noticed something else that sent a jolt through her body: her partner was hanging limply under Black Star's left arm.

In seconds the girls helped both boys out of the pool and onto the damp cement. Black Star seemed alright, if a bit winded, but Soul was unconscious. As they laid him down on the ground, Maka knelt beside him and grabbed his shoulders.

"Soul!" she yelled, shaking him in an attempt to wake him. "Soul! Can you hear me?" When no response came, she released him and quickly surveyed his body. His skin looked paler than usual, and his white shirt was stained an odd, grayish hue from the black liquid. It was in examining it that she noticed one crucial, terrifying fact.

He wasn't breathing.

Maka froze in terror, hoping she was mistaken. But the gasps around her told her that she wasn't the only one to realize this, and her stomach dropped in dread. "No…" she whispered in a weak voice.

"Wait," Tsubaki said, her voice sounding urgent but tinged with a note of worry. She pushed her way to Soul's left side, opposite Maka, and crouched down beside him. Without a word, she crossed her hands over his chest and pressed down on it, once, twice, three times, and then more in quick succession. Then she pinched his nose and lowered her face to his, breathing hard into his mouth. When nothing happened, she uttered a brief cry of frustration before beginning the process again.

Maka watched on in silent distress, hot tears streaming down the sides of her face. This wasn't happening. This _couldn't_ be happening. Their team had always been the best—invincible. And now here they were, losing horribly to a group of enemies they couldn't see, hear, smell, or touch, no matter how hard they tried. Maka and her friends were completely at the mercy of the hotel and whatever inhabitants it contained that seemed bent on their destruction. And with the way things were going, they just might get it. _Please don't let him die…_ she pleaded in her mind. She wasn't sure who she was talking to, but she refused to believe that it had been pure chance that had attacked them. _Please don't let him die…_

After four cycles of Tsubaki's CPR, Soul's eyes shot open at last. He jerked his body into a sitting position and coughed violently, hacking multitudes of black water onto the cement. Relief filled every fiber of Maka's being all at once, and she almost laughed at the feeling. She released her breath in one heavy swoop, not realizing she'd been holding it for probably the last minute.

"Are you okay?" she asked her partner, her voice cracking. As his coughing fit subsided, he nodded. His skin was still surprisingly pale, and he was breathing heavily, but he was alive, and that was what mattered.

"This place…" he croaked, rubbing his neck, "is nuts."

Maka allowed herself a giddy laugh as she recognized his words from earlier that night. "You're telling me," she responded in kind, before leaning forward and pulling him into a tight embrace, ignoring the fact that he was still soaking wet from head to toe. Over his shoulder, she glanced at Tsubaki and smiled heartily, as if to thank her. Tsubaki smiled and shook her head.

"I don't know about you guys," Black Star began, picking up his shirt from where he'd tossed it and pulling it back on over his head, "but water sports have never really been my thing. Let's get out of here and get dried off."

No one hesitated to agree.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"So what do you think this stuff is?" Soul inquired, holding his gray-stained shirt at arm's length and examining it with narrowed eyes.

Maka finished brushing her damp hair and stepped over to him. "I don't know," she answered honestly. "When I was in it, it felt kind of sticky, like gelatin. Like it was holding onto me and didn't want to let go."

"Yeah, I felt it, too," he mused, setting the wet shirt down and proceeding to button up the new, dry one he'd donned. "I couldn't move well when I was underneath it, like it was thicker than normal pool water." He shook his head and made a disgusted face. "Tasted like normal pool water, though." Maka chuckled, glad she hadn't herself tasted any of the strange, black water. Even as she laughed, watching him bundle up his wet clothes and toss them into the bathroom, an odd and sudden rush of the worry she'd felt before, along with the knowledge that her partner had just had a very near brush with death, hit her all at once, draining the small smile from her face.

"It really… scared me, you know?" she said softly, not feeling that more explanation was necessary. She was sort of surprised at how much emotion could be heard through her words, and she wasn't the only one who noticed it. Soul stopped what he was doing and turned to face her, his expression serious. He walked up to her and carefully wrapped his arms around her, holding onto her tightly. She leaned her face into his shoulder, reveling in the warmth she felt with his body so close to hers.

"Hey," he said in a low, soothing voice. "Everything's fine, okay? It's over. We're out of there."

"But they won't just stop," she insisted, leaning back so as to look at his eyes. "You know this won't be the last time they attack us."

"Look, Maka," he began, giving her a pointed look. "We messed up. We weren't prepared. It happens." _Not to us,_ she wanted to say, but she held herself back. "We'll figure out a way to beat this, okay? Lord Death wouldn't have sent us if it wasn't possible." He offered her a reassuring smile, which did actually make her feel a bit better. He was right, after all. As she made to return the expression, she faltered, noticing a flash of some other emotion—was it pain?—behind Soul's eyes. It was brief, so brief she thought she might have been mistaken. But still she had to be sure.

"Are you okay?" she asked apprehensively, pulling farther back in his arms to examine his face more closely.

"Of course," he answered convincingly. "Why?" She noticed he still looked a bit pale, but he seemed fine otherwise, so she attested it to the aftermath of his almost having drowned less than half an hour ago.

"Just making sure," she conceded. "Let's go find the others."

-0-0-0-0-0-

Not long after, all six found themselves gathered in the hotel lobby, at a loss for what to do next. They had searched just about the whole building for their missing friend, and had been met with little luck. Well, little _good_ luck, and very much _bad _luck. Either way, events were not occurring in their favor.

A bright flash of lightning made the windows temporarily glow like the sun, and a loud, jarring crash of thunder rumbled the hotel not a half a second later. The storm was still going as strong as ever.

"Maybe we should try and get some lights back on," Maka suggested, looking into the darkness around them that hid the corners of the lobby, making the walls seem much farther away than she knew them to be.

"This _would_ be much easier if we could see," Patty agreed, as she too squinted into the shadows.

"But what if the storm was the cause of the power outage?" Tsubaki wondered with a frown.

"Well, why don't we at least try to find the fuse box and find out?" Maka said, rising to her feet and signaling the others to do the same. "Soul, did you guys see anything when you were downstairs?"

"No," he replied thoughtfully, "but there was one room we didn't get to look in. It might be in there." Liz and Patty nodded, seeming to understand and agree.

And so, they had a plan. A meager one, but a plan nonetheless. It didn't take them long to get to the basement, as the door to the stairwell was located in the lobby. Upon reaching the basement floor, Soul strode up to the first door on the right of the old-looking hallways before them. Maka noticed him hesitate for just a second as he reached for the doorknob, but then he shook his head and grabbed it, before turning it and pushing the door open.

The room inside was dark, but from what they could tell it was long. Maka stepped over the threshold after her partner, and instantly she felt a strange change in the atmosphere, as though the air inside was thicker and imbued with electricity. It was faint, but she could sense a strange power inside, something she couldn't make out. No one else seemed to notice, so she didn't say anything, resolving to worry them only if the sensation got stronger or felt more dangerous.

"There," Tsubaki said, pointing her flashlight against the left wall of the room and illuminating a simple, gray fuse box.

"Alright, let's get this started," Black Star said, taking a few steps toward the box.

"Oh, no, you don't," Maka stopped him, reaching out and grabbing his shoulder. If they let Black Star start flipping switches, he'd probably succeed in lighting the place on fire before turning the electricity back on.

So instead, Soul took Maka's flashlight and opened up the fuse box, examining it closely. After a few seconds of silence, he flipped three switches, and Maka was actually surprised when a single, covered light bulb above them flickered to life, casting a dim glow about the cellar room and throwing long shadows across the walls. "There we go," he said, slamming the box shut and turning off his flashlight.

"Alright!" Patty cheered as her sister let out an audible sigh of relief. Spinning around, Maka noticed that the lights in the hallway had come back to life as well. "We left in kind of a hurry earlier," Patty continued. "How 'bout we take a better look around down here?"

As Soul, Black Star, and Tsubaki left the room to inspect another, Maka, Liz, and Patty spread out across the room they were in, examining it more closely. Maka stood still for a few seconds, attempting to find the source of the dim sensation of power that was still tugging at the back of her senses. She stepped slowly up to the nearest wall and touched it lightly with the tips of her fingers. The walls were covered with plain, white wallpaper (which she found vaguely strange as it appeared to be much newer than the rest of the un-renovated basement), under which she assumed was bare stone. Concentrating on the mysterious energy, she began to walk absently, running her right hand lazily across the wall beside her. It wasn't strange that she was the only one to sense it, as her soul perception was by far the strongest among her friends. For this reason, she wasn't entirely worried. If it was truly dangerous, they probably would have sensed it as well, after all.

About halfway down the wall, her fingers stuck on an edge of wallpaper that had begun to peel itself away from the stone beneath it. She glanced at it half-heartedly, but did a double take when she caught a glimpse of something blue from beneath it, in soft contrast to the gray stone. Curious, she pulled at the upturned strip of wallpaper and began to pull it carefully away from the wall. As she did, it revealed a simple stone wall, as she had predicted. Striking across it, however, were lines of blue and purple which etched out a befuddled pattern beneath the plain, white paper. She continued to tear the paper until she fully revealed what was beneath it and stepped back to examine her work.

"Wow," Patty breathed from Maka's left. In her curiosity, she hadn't noticed the sisters approach her, but now there all three stood, staring at the wall before them. Stretched across the stone was a large, round symbol with strange writing scrawled around its inside perimeter in a language Maka didn't recognize. The design inside the circle was so confusing and convoluted that it almost hurt her eyes to stare at it for too long, and it was impossible to follow any one line through its entire course. It didn't look as though the symbol was drawn or painted onto the stone, for it was much too neat and precise. Rather, it was as though someone willed it into being and so it was. It was enticing to look at, but mysterious. Maka could sense the same faint power as before, but it felt neither good nor evil. It just _was_.

Maka stepped back and opened her mouth to address the sisters. "What do you think—?"

"Guys! Come quick!" Tsubaki's voice sounded from out in the hall. Maka, Liz, and Patty exchanged glances before turning and hurrying out of the room. Maka shot one last look at the strange glyph, but given Tsubaki's apparent urgency she knew that she had more important things to worry about at the moment. Maybe she would return to get a better look later.

When they didn't find Tsubaki—or anyone, for that matter—in the hall, they noticed that the only other open door was the next one down on the right. "That's the kitchen," Patty remembered, leading the way toward it. Remembering all too well the story of what had happened the last time some of them had ventured into the kitchen, Maka felt a wave of worry seep into her as they neared the door.

As they turned to enter the kitchen, Patty ran headlong into Black Star, who must have been on his way to find them. As he and Patty shook themselves off, Maka demanded, "What happened?"

Black Star flung his arm out behind him and pointed, saying, "We found Kid!"

"What?" Liz squealed as Patty gasped, before all three girls shoved their way into the kitchen. Inside were the same long tables and shelves of cutlery and china that Maka had heard tell of. But that wasn't what caught her attention. At the far end of the room, a good number of yards away, was a heavy metal door with a thick iron handle and a single window near the top. A thick layer of some clear, crystalline substance appeared to be squashed into the doorframe on all three sides, save where the door met the tiled floor. Tsubaki was standing in front of the door, peering into the window. When she turned around, there was a frightened expression on her face.

"We have to open it!" she said, her voice laced with worry.

"Easier said than done!" Soul growled. He was standing beside her, hands on the iron handle. He pulled at the door, but it didn't budge. Liz and Patty dashed across the room and Tsubaki hurriedly moved aside, allowing them to look into the window. Patty's face drained of color and Liz let out a kind of strangled cry.

As Maka neared as well, she stepped beside them and put a hand on the door, but yelped in surprise and withdrew it immediately. The metal was bitingly cold, so cold it almost seemed to burn her skin. It was then that she realized the crystalline substance that encased the outer perimeter of the door was in fact solid ice.

They were looking at a walk-in freezer.

Soul yelled in frustration and kicked at the door. Glancing up near the top of the doorframe, he stepped back and stuck his right arm out in front of him. With a dim flash of light, the arm changed its shape to that of his scythe form, so it appeared as though the gleaming, black and red blade stuck menacingly out from his shoulder. As Liz and Patty backed away to give him room, he grunted, "We have to get rid of this ice."

As he started hacking away at the thick barrier of ice around the door, Black Star ran forward without hesitation, gesturing to Tsubaki. She nodded obediently, before allowing her entire form to alter to her ninja sword mode, which Black Star caught expertly and joined Soul in digging away the ice. It didn't take long until the last bit of it had been knocked to the floor.

Black Star grabbed the thick handle and pulled, but still it wouldn't move.

"The hinges!" Maka realized, throwing her arm forward and pointing at the right side of the door. Sure enough, the hinges had been completely iced over, freezing them in place. With a snarl, Soul raised his blade-arm and sliced both hinges off the door in one strike. This time when Black Star yanked the handle, the entire door tipped forward. He and Soul caught it simultaneously, and together lifted it away from the doorframe to finally allow entry, before leaning it heavily against the wall out of their way. As the warm air from the basement kitchen entered the freezer, large puffs of freezing cold smoke seemed to waft from within it. Even from where she stood, Maka could feel the heat leaving the air all around her, rushing into the freezer which had held such a strong absence of warmth.

As Tsubaki and Soul returned to their full human forms, Patty and Liz rushed into the freezer, and Maka finally caught a glimpse of the inside. There were shelves against all three inside walls, on which were stacked boxes and piles of meats and various other perishables. And sure enough, sitting on the ground with his back leaning against the backmost set of shelves, head hung low and face hidden, was Kid.

Liz and Patty each grabbed one of their meister's arms and dragged him out of the cold and onto the tile floor of the kitchen. As they laid him down flat and finally were able to get a good look at him, Maka felt her stomach drop in fear. His skin was so sickeningly white, it was almost crystal clear, save for his lips and the tips of his fingers, all of which were a striking bluish-purple. There were white snowflakes covering his clothes, and the tips of his hair were solid as winter icicles. She reached out tentatively and touched the side of his face, and had to stop herself from recoiling at the extreme lack of heat. His eyes were closed, but he was breathing, if only barely. An intense feeling of dread swept over Maka, as she realized she had no idea how long he'd been in there. Hours, at least, judging by the effect the below-freezing temperature had had on him. Any normal human would be dead, more than likely. But even Kid wasn't invincible.

"We have to warm him up," Maka said, trying to keep her voice from shaking. "Now."

Black Star lifted Kid onto his back and Maka led the way back upstairs at a brisk pace. As they left the kitchen, Maka thought once more of the experience Soul, Liz, and Patty had had in that very room, and this time she noticed with a jolt that there was no evidence of it anywhere. No broken dishes. In fact, the shelves were full again, as though the whole thing had never happened. With a shudder, she tore her eyes away from the kitchen and headed upstairs.

When they reached the lobby and Maka veered for the stairs, Black Star stopped.

"Why don't we just leave?" he said, glancing over toward the front door.

"What?" Maka demanded.

"We've got Kid," Black Star went on. "So let's get the hell outta here!"

Just then, lightning struck once more, and while the lobby was now lit from the chandelier and many light fixtures, a blinding flash still resulted, followed immediately by a loud clap of thunder. Maka gave Black Star a pointed look. "We can't," she explained, though she too wished they could leave the place and be done with it. "He's almost completely frozen as it is. If we take him out there in that storm, he'll die." As if to emphasize her words, another booming strike of thunder sounded, almost shaking the hotel. Everyone was silent for a moment. Black Star stared at Maka, seeming troubled, but she could tell he understood that what she was saying was true, and with a defeated grunt he gave in and followed her toward the stairs.

As they climbed the stairs to the first floor of hotel rooms, Maka noticed how on edge everyone was, herself included, she supposed. Black Star had a stony expression, as though determined to be strong enough for everyone. Soul was still oddly pale, and his eyebrows were knitted together in an intense frown, like he was trying to think of something but his mind was distracted by so many other useless thoughts. Patty looked on the verge of tears as she walked next to Black Star. She kept shooting concerned glances at her unconscious meister, as though hoping that the next time she looked, he would be awake and well again. Liz followed behind them, staring intently at Kid's back. Her eyes were wide and shining, tears gathered in their corners. Her eyebrows were constantly quivering in fear, and she was breathing slightly more quickly than usual, which Maka knew had nothing to do with the vague exertion of their upward climb.

Maka led the way into the first room they came to. Before long they had a warm fire going strong in the fireplace, and were all seated comfortably—if not calmly—around the room.

"Now what do we do?" Patty asked quietly after at least fifteen minutes of silence. She was leaning against the windowed wall of the room, a pillow between her and the drawn curtain, arms wrapped tightly around her knees as she gazed almost sadly toward the fire, in front of which lay her sleeping meister.

"I don't know," Maka answered just as softly, for once the true weight of the words pushing down on her shoulders. She didn't know what to do. Many times she'd been in a situation where she'd been momentarily at a loss, where she'd had to come up with a plan or an idea or something to get her or a friend out of a bind. But this time was different. This time, she had no idea who or what was doing this, why it was happening, how they could stop it, if they even _could _stop it, and—most worrying of all, and the hardest to admit—if there was any chance of them all making it out alive.

For the first time ever, she really, truly, didn't know what to do.

"Maybe we should try and get some sleep," Soul suggested with a sideways glance at Maka. He must have sensed her unease, she realized, and she was grateful for the change of subject. "It's been a long night."

There was a general consensus as to this plan, and they all settled down as best they could to attempt even a small bit of rest after the past few trying hours. As Soul lied down and Maka rested her head carefully on his shoulder, she tried to clear her mind. She thought of previous Halloweens, and of how much fun she and her friends had had on the holiday in the past. But as she closed her eyes, the last thing she saw was Liz's face from where she sat beside the fire, watching her meister with tear-filled eyes and shaking her head ever so slowly, lips moving silently as if in prayer.

And Maka was struck by the morbid premonition that the worst had yet to come.

* * *

><p>Yay, we found Kid! Not doing too hot, though, is he? (again, hyuk hyuk hyuk. Haha, oh, puns). This one's not as cliffhanger-y as the others, but it was already getting kinda long so I had to end it here. That way the next one will be a good length too, yanno?<p>

See ya soon, y'all! (Reviews are my drug, yanno :D They keep me happy and writing!)

-oMM


	4. It's the Luck That's Hard

I think this might be the longest chapter yet! Woo-hoo! Well, I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not... I like this one though, I had a lot of fun writing it :D haha.

Hmm... don't think I have anything else to say... Enjoy!

* * *

><p>The slow chorus of steady breathing reverberating softly throughout the dimly-lit hotel suite should have had a calming, comforting effect, but even as she listened to it Liz only felt her uneasiness increase. She was the only one of the seven awake, she knew, and she was more tired than she could say. But sleep was impossible for her at the moment. So awake she stayed.<p>

As she leaned with her back against the gold-trimmed grates before the fireplace, her eyes remained fixated on a single spot on the carpeted floor in front of her, the warmth from the crackling fire heating her back comfortably. She continued to wring her hands over and over in her lap absently, sometimes thinking of everything at once and sometimes of nothing at all.

They'd found him, finally. For that at least, she was glad. The uncertainty had ebbed, but with it only some of her fear. And until he woke up, that fear would remain, she was sure. She knew they were all worried, but for her it was different. Perhaps that was why she couldn't bring herself to rest.

She couldn't guess how long it had been since the last of her companions had fallen asleep. Maybe ten minutes, maybe two hours. Her perception of the passage of time had become distorted as she retreated in and out of the muddled confusion of her quiet thoughts. She didn't want to think about any of it, really, wishing more than anything that she could sleep like the rest of them and help the time to pass more quickly. But knowing that was impossible, she instead shook her head and allowed her eyes to roam sluggishly around the room.

The light from the fire cast oddly-shaped, dancing shadows about the walls and ceiling. It was vaguely unsettling, but she seemed less frightened by the sight as she knew she would have been had she not had other, larger fears pressing down on her senses. Soul and Maka slept soundlessly on the bed near the door, Black Star and Tsubaki on the one near the window. They all lay atop the blankets, in order to facilitate an easier escape. Just in case, they'd said. Patty was curled into a comfortable ball on the floor to Liz's right, near the windows behind which the storm still raged, relentless as ever. A simple look of calm serenity graced her sleeping face, and Liz felt a small smile pull at her lips as she watched her sister, glad that she at least could escape their worries and fears for even a little while.

Finally she allowed her tired eyes to drift to her left, where her unconscious meister lay absorbing the warmth from the fire. The blankets they'd placed over him covered his body from the neck down, so as to better trap the heat beneath them. The ice in his hair had long since melted, leaving it just vaguely damp and making it cling softly to his forehead, the skin on which had regained a good deal of its former color. The blue had faded from his dry lips, which now she could see were cracked from lack of moisture. His face was completely devoid of expression, as though he were lost in the deepest and quietest of sleeps. Even beneath the layer of blankets, she could see his chest moving gently up and down as he breathed evenly. With a weak sigh, she reached out her hand and made to brush the wet hair from his face. When her fingers were less than an inch from his forehead, she froze.

It was the slightest of movements, but she could have sworn she'd seen his eyebrows knit briefly together, as though he were frowning in thought. She sat stock still, her hand suspended just above his head, her eyes staring intently at his face. A few seconds passed, and just when she was beginning to think she must have imagined the motion, his lips parted a fraction of an inch and a short, breathy groan escaped them.

Almost not daring to allow herself to be too hopeful, Liz withdrew her hand and leaned forward. "Kid…?" she whispered softly. To her immense relief, his eyes slowly creaked open. Beneath the lids, his eyes looked vaguely glazed over from sleep. A broad smile stretched rapidly across Liz's face as she leaned back to give him space. As his eyes moved around the room, a confused look appeared slowly across his face and sat up with another tired groan. As he did so, the blankets fell back, exposing his bare torso to the air and making him shiver visibly.

"Be careful," Liz warned softly, taking care not to wake the others. "You need to stay warm."

He turned to face her and she saw a mixture of pain and confusion on his face. "L-Liz…?" he said, his voice coming out in a strangled whisper. He squeezed his eyes shut and coughed violently for about half a minute, Liz watching in concern until he asked, "What happened?"

Liz frowned. "We were hoping you could tell us," she answered with a wry smile. "You disappeared last night when you went to look around. A little while ago we finally found you in the basement freezer. You don't remember how you got there?"

He looked down, squinting his eyes in thought. "No," he answered finally, sounding frustrated. He clenched his teeth and put a hand on the back of his head. "I don't—" He cut off abruptly as another ragged coughing fit took him. This time Liz reached out and touched his shoulders.

"Just relax, okay? Stay close to the fire." With her help, he slid closer and leaned his bare back against the grate, tilting his head back and closing his eyes.

"So what happened since I left?" Kid asked finally. For the next few minutes, Liz explained to him everything that had transpired as they'd searched for him, from their attack in the kitchen to Maka's near abduction in the casino to the events in the restaurant to Soul's close call at the pool. As she spoke, he listened intently, the frown on his face deepening all the while. When once again she expressed her strong desire to leave as soon as they could, he looked down, appearing deep in thought.

"What?" she wondered. "You… don't wanna leave?"

He was silent for a moment more, before answering in a careful voice, "That's not it. I just don't understand…" He fell silent, but she didn't ask him to elaborate. She knew he would if she gave him time. "Why would Father send us here if there was no way we could fight back? Unless… he was wrong about this place…" His worried frown seemed to deepen even further at this thought. "But that can't be. Which means there has to be something we can do."

Troubled by his obvious uncertainty, Liz shuddered and said, "I still think we should go and come back another day."

"Maybe you're right," he conceded with a sigh, somewhat surprising her. He laced his fingers together and reached his arms forward their full length, stretching his thawing muscles. As he did so he stopped and stared at his hands, a serious expression on his face. "Where's my—?"

"Oh, right—" Liz began, instantly realizing what he was looking at. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ring that Maka had found in the casino, holding it out for him to retrieve. "We found it when we were looking for you."

An expression of immense relief filled his face as he took the ring from her and replaced it on the middle finger of his left hand. Then once again he stretched both arms out in front of him and grinned at their sameness. "That's better," he said.

Liz quirked an eyebrow. "I thought you were over the whole 'perfect symmetry' thing?" she challenged him with a smirk.

He avoided her eyes and stammered, "W-Well, I… It throws off my sense of balance if one hand is… heavier than the other, right? It's got nothing to do with whether or not they're symmetrical." He nodded and fell silent, as though that were all the explanation necessary. Liz chuckled silently to herself. Sure, Kid had grown out of his obsession enough that he didn't lapse into mental breakdowns anymore if ever he came across something that appeared less than perfect, but he still had his moments of weakness. And to her, that was a good thing. She felt as though he wouldn't be Kid otherwise.

After a second he turned to look at her. "Hey, is something wrong?" he asked with a concerned frown.

She looked away, taken aback. Then again, he and Patty had always been able to tell when something was on her mind. "No, I'm just a bit tired. That's all," she lied as convincingly as she could.

"Why weren't you asleep like everyone else?" he wondered in an almost reprimanding tone. "It sounds like you've all had a difficult night. You'll be exhausted all day if you don't get some rest."

"I couldn't sleep," she answered truthfully this time. "Too much to think about."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "The others all seemed to manage okay."

Liz's throat tightened uneasily. "I was just… worried, okay? About… you…"

Kid glanced over Liz's shoulder toward the window. "But Patty looks sound asleep," he argued.

"It's different," Liz replied, trying to sound aloof and probably failing.

"How?"

Liz bit her lip, wanting to end the conversation. They were treading in dangerous waters. "You wouldn't understand," she insisted.

Kid fell silent for a moment, and Liz was afraid her statement had hurt him. She was busy trying to think of a way to retract herself when he asked carefully, "Liz, are you okay?" She looked over at him, but didn't answer. "I can tell there's something bothering you. We're friends, right? You can talk to me."

She shook her head and thought to herself, _Not about this_. Instead, she said aloud, "I know…"

"Then what is it?"

"It's just…" She glanced up at him and found herself once more at a loss for words. Should she tell him the truth? Or should she cover it up like she always did, insisting to herself that it wasn't the right time? _Time…_ To be honest, at that moment, she wasn't sure if the 'right time' would ever come. Even after all that had happened that night, she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't over. And that meant that maybe the time she was waiting for would be stolen from her sooner than she thought. With this in mind she studied his face to try and discern what he was thinking her problem might be. His eyebrows were knitted tightly together like she'd seen them so many times before, whenever he was deep in thought. His dry, cracked lips were quivering so slightly she almost didn't notice it, due to the cold, she was sure. His intense golden eyes were trained directly on hers, waiting for whatever answer she finally decided to give. Right then, seeing him alive and well brought forth such a rush of emotion that she had to fight to keep her face from showing it. Instead, she said in a whisper so low Kid had to lean forward to hear her, "They don't see you like I do."

Confusion sparked in his eyes, and Liz was only vaguely aware of the fact that he was still leaning very close to her. But this time, she didn't shy away, and when he started to ask, "What do you—?" she seemed to lose control of her body altogether and before she knew it she'd sealed the small gap between them and forced his lips closed mid-sentence by pressing her own against them.

She felt him go completely rigid with shock, telling her he hadn't been privy to her secret in the slightest. After a few seconds, she backed away, breaking the contact. There was a blank look on Kid's face, as though his brain had simply stopped working. As he blinked a few times, Liz all of a sudden began to feel extremely self-conscious. The weight of what she'd just done seemed to hit her like a ton of bricks, and she found herself wishing she could take it back. What was she thinking, kissing him like that without any explanation or warning? She was almost afraid to know what he was thinking.

"Uh…" Kid finally began unintelligibly, shaking his head as if to clear it. His mouth moved as though he were still speaking, but no sound came out.

Liz felt heat rise in her face. "I'm sorry…!" she said hurriedly, backing up across the floor. "Just forget about it."

He finally looked at her, surprise flashing across his eyes. "No, wait—"

"You should probably rest," she went on, fighting to keep her voice steady and spinning around so her back was to him as tears brimmed in the corners of her eyes. "We both should."

"But—"

"Goodnight, Kid." With that, she lied down on the floor, still determinedly facing away from him.

"Liz! Hey—!"

This time, it wasn't her who cut him off. A scream rang through the room as Tsubaki sprang upward and threw herself off of the rightmost bed, landing on the floor with a soft _thud_. Black Star sat up with a jolt as Patty, Soul, and Maka woke instantly. Liz rose to a sitting position, noticing Kid turn to find the disturbance.

"Tsubaki!" Black Star exclaimed as his partner struggled to her feet and sat carefully on the edge of the bed. She was shaking and breathing fast, her arms hugged tightly into her stomach. "What? What happened?" Black Star demanded, grabbing her shoulder and staring at her, concern all over his face. She looked up at him with watery eyes, before stretching out her arms before her. Liz's stomach turned as she saw blood dripping from each of Tsubaki's shaking arms. There were long, jagged lines cut in different directions across the skin on her forearms. They didn't look deep, but there were certainly a lot of them. As she rose to her feet, Liz noticed that the pattern wasn't as random as she'd thought, and that the lines in fact spelled out two words, one on each arm. On her right arm, they formed the word _'JACK',_ and on her left, the word _'POT!'._ When she held them together, it was obvious what they read.

"No way…" Maka whispered as Black Star's face contorted with rage.

"They'll pay for this," he growled, his voice low and threatening.

"Just hold on a second," Kid warned, rising to his feet and pulling his shirt back on. Everyone but Liz jumped at the sound of his voice. "Don't go doing anything stupid."

"Kid!" Maka gasped as Patty's face lit up with joy. "You're awake!" Kid offered them a brief half-smile, which vanished when Black Star leaped off of his bed and stormed toward the door.

"Aren't you listening?" Kid demanded, blocking Black Star's path by stepping between him and the door. "You don't know what—"

"Outta my way, Kid," Black Star said in that same low voice, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"No," Kid replied firmly, standing his ground. It may have been Liz's imagination, but she thought she saw his eyes twitch slightly as he gritted his teeth for a short second, as though he were fighting not to be sick. "Look, the best thing for us to do right now is—" With an impatient grunt, Black Star curled his right hand into a fist and drove it hard into Kid's stomach, effectively knocking the wind out of him.

"Black Star!" Maka scolded him in surprise and anger, climbing off her bed as Kid faltered and dropped to his knees with a strangled gasp, allowing Black Star to dodge around him and sprint out the door.

"That idiot," Soul muttered through clenched teeth. He jumped to his feet and rushed after Black Star as Patty hurried to Kid's side and Liz stared on in fear, not knowing what to do. All she could think was, _Here we go again…_

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Black Star, stop!" Maka shouted as she and Soul exited the stairwell to find Black Star standing in the center of the lobby, looking around wildly in glaring anger.

"Where are they?" he growled. "Hey! You think you can attack her and get away with it? Get out here!"

"That's enough!" Soul took his turn to try and reason with their friend. "Just shut up and calm down!"

"NO!" he replied, raising his voice even louder. "I've had enough of this! Whoever this is seems to think they can do whatever the hell they want with us! Well I'm DONE hiding! They want a fight? I'LL BRING THEM ONE!"

"Black Star, please," Tsubaki, who had just entered with the rest of their team, begged her partner, tears in her eyes. Liz stood silently behind her, watching with wide eyes. Patty was glaring at Black Star, Kid leaning heavily on her shoulder. "Think about what you're doing."

Seeing Tsubaki with her cut and bloodied arms only seemed to fuel Black Star's anger, and give Maka a strange feeling of foreboding. "What's wrong?" he continued to challenge every molecule of air around him. He threw back his head and directed his yelling toward the high ceiling. "Now you're scared? Come on, you damn cowards! SHOW YOURSELVES!"

He opened his mouth to shout again as Maka took a step forward in caution, but that split second there was a flash of lightning and a boom of thunder, just as some great, invisible force slammed itself into Black Star, sending him flying backward with a painful howl. He collided with the front desk with such force that it collapsed around him, just as every light in the lobby flickered and dimmed (though thankfully this time none went out).

"_Black Star!_" Tsubaki screamed, and all six of them dashed toward the wreckage as light clouds of dust began to rise from the scene. They frantically pulled scraps of broken wood aside until at last they found him, lying on his back amid the rubble, knocked out cold. Seemingly ignoring the wounds on her forearms, Tsubaki grabbed her meister's shirt and shook him vigorously, calling his name with tears in her eyes. After a short second, he groaned and opened his eyes, before immediately squeezing them shut again and clenching his teeth hard. "Are you alright?" Tsubaki asked eagerly as he raised a hand to his head.

"Of course," he answered somewhat weakly. "You think… something stupid like this… is enough to—" His voice broke into a pained grunt as he tried to sit up, then flinched and wrapped an arm around his stomach.

"Slow down, okay?" Maka warned him in a careful voice.

"No way," he replied through gritted teeth. "I'm gonna find these bastards… They'll pay for what they did to Tsubaki." He forced himself to his feet, staggering heavily and clutching at his head again.

Patty stepped up and stuck her hand in his face, saying, "How many fingers am I holding up?"

Black Star stared at her and blinked a few times in quick succession, his eyes appearing hazy and unfocused. "Which one of you?" he grunted before dropping back to his knees.

"What happened anyway?" Maka asked tentatively.

"I… don't know," Black Star admitted, wincing as he sat down amid the broken polished wood. "Something hit me, but… I didn't see anything." That was easy enough for Maka to believe. After all, she hadn't seen anything either. She fell silent, deep in thought, as Tsubaki lifted the edge of Black Star's shirt to reveal a rapidly-forming, colorful bruise on his right side. She gently poked at the bruise, and frowned when her meister hissed in pain at the touch.

"I think you have some broken ribs," she said. "I know you don't want to hear this, but you need to take it easy—"

"Like hell," he grumbled through clenched teeth. "I'm gonna find whoever hurt you and make them pay." As a sad smile graced Tsubaki's face, Maka noticed her skin was growing pale. She'd been ignoring her own wounds for too long.

"Tsubaki, we should do something about—" Maka broke off as the lights flickered once again. Then, all of a sudden, they heard a series of muffled sounds coming from the giant doors which led to the casino. Bells ringing, people shouting and laughing, music playing… It sounded as though the casino were full of people. Maka and the others stared with wide eyes, frightened at the sudden cacophony of noises.

"A-ha!" Black Star laughed in triumph. Before anyone could react, he leapt to his feet and dashed straight for the doors.

"Black Star, wait—!" Maka warned as he grabbed the handles and pulled the doors toward him. No sooner had a thin crack appeared between the doors than the sounds stopped abruptly, as though someone had pressed the mute button on the air around them.

Black Star stared into the dark, empty casino before him. "_What?_" he demanded in disbelief. "No freakin' way!" He twisted his hands into fists and stalked straight into the darkness.

"Black Star, no!" Tsubaki called, leading the way after him. They had no flashlights, and the dim lighting from the lobby provided only a few yards of solace from the deep shadows that stretched throughout the remainder of the wide room. Black Star had stopped at the edge of the light and was looking around, a suspicious glare in his eyes.

"Okay, I _know_ I heard—" he began, but before he could finish his thought, his voice was drowned out as all at once the casino lights began to flicker on and off and every row of slot machines sprang to life, each one ringing loudly and flashing orange and yellow lights across the room.

Then without warning, everything stopped, and a whispering, breathy voice said, "_Who's the big winner?_" Maka shivered involuntarily at the sound. It was as though the bodiless voice had come from the walls itself, and was impossible to locate.

Before anyone could think of an answer, the growingly-familiar dense mist crept out of the darkness and gathered around Tsubaki's feet. She gasped sharply as it rose and twisted around her branded arms, before suddenly her arms shot outward and she was pulled into the darkness and out of sight.

"TSUBAKI!" Black Star roared as his partner screamed from somewhere near the center of the room. Before he could take one step, however, the lights flashed on, half-blinding them all and forcing some of them to cover their eyes.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki called, sounding much farther away than she'd been seconds before. Maka lowered her arms and examined the casino stretched out before her. Against the wall opposite the doors—many yards from where they were standing—was another fountain that Maka had missed the last time they'd visited, thanks to the power outage. This one, however, looked as though, had it been running, the water would stream from a ledge near the ceiling and cascade downward inside a twenty-foot-wide indentation in the wall, where it would gather in a small pool at the wall's base. In a word, it was like a miniature waterfall. And suspended in thin air just below the high ceiling, hanging by her wrists with no visible support save for the mist still swirling around her, was Tsubaki.

Black Star looked positively livid as he laid eyes on her. He began to stalk further into the room purposefully, but after he'd taken three steps, the bodiless voice said, "_I wouldn't if I were you._" Then without warning, flames erupted inside the empty pool far below Tsubaki, making her gasp in surprise and Black Star freeze in his tracks.

"Tsubaki, just transform!" he shouted across the room. She was silent for a moment, before her eyes widened in panic.

"I can't!" she yelled back, fear on her face.

"_What?_" Black Star demanded, now beginning to look afraid himself, which proved to Maka more than anything the severity of their situation.

"Must be that damn mist…" Soul said, a serious glare on his face.

"We've gotta do something," Kid began (Maka noticed he sounded vaguely out of breath), turning toward his weapon partners with urgency in his voice. They each took one of his hands (Maka also noticed Liz hesitate for a fraction of a second before touching him) and a brief flash of light later, Kid spun around, aiming both guns toward the far wall where Tsubaki hung helplessly. He fired six times, each shot piercing the insubstantial mist near the demon weapon's wrists. The fog showed no signs of relent, however, and only continued to swirl around and around, as if challenging them to try again. Kid pulled back, clucking his tongue in annoyance.

"What do you want?" Maka called desperately toward the ceiling.

To her surprise, the voice answered, "_How about a game?_" Maka jumped as a roulette wheel a few feet to Black Star's left began to spin slowly.

"They want us to play?" Liz, who had regained her human form along with her sister, asked timidly, eyeing the turning wheel with a wary gaze. Without waiting for clarification, all six of them gathered around the table beside the spinning wheel.

"I don't know how to play roulette," Maka admitted, seeing similarly worried looks on most of her companions.

"Don't worry," Soul reassured her. "The concept is easy. It's the luck that's hard."

"_Three spins,_" the misty voice went on as a small pile of dark blue roulette chips appeared in front of Soul and Maka. "_Turn ten to one hundred, and win the prize._" No one had to ask what the 'prize' would be.

"Only ten?" Soul murmured, glancing at the chips with apprehension. "Jeez…"

"Screw this!" Black Star yelled, turning to glare at the ceiling. "Let her go _now_! Or else—" Tsubaki shrieked as she was suddenly dropped several feet through the air and closer to the fire below, the mist catching her after half a second. The flames in the empty pool flared up even higher. "Okay, okay!" Black Star retracted, holding up his hands. "We'll play! But if we win you let her go, right?"

"_Three spins,_" it said again. "_One hundred. Then she goes free. Now, place your first bet._"

Maka turned nervously to her partner. "Soul?"

He surveyed the board, eyes darting across the red and black spaces. "Okay, each spin we make two bets, one outside the number area and one inside. Five dollar minimum, usually, and since we only have ten to go with…" He hesitated a moment, before sliding a stack of five chips onto the space closest to him, which contained only a plain, red rectangle. The other stack he placed on the white line between the black 22 space and a space reading '2nd 12.' Maka had no idea what either of these moves signified, but their mysterious dealer seemed satisfied with them and a light clattering sound signaled the dropping of a tiny white ball onto the surface of the spinning wheel. For a few seconds the only sounds in the entire casino were the bouncing of the ball and the cackling of the flames, before the orb finally came to rest on the black slot labeled '24'.

Soul let out a nervous sigh of relief as the voice said, "_One win, one loss. Fifty dollars._" A single red chip appeared on the board, over the black number 24, as their blue chips vanished, only to reappear before them, joined by fifty more.

"What happened?" Liz asked, staring at the numerous piles of chips in surprise.

Soul pointed to the line where he'd placed the second pile of chips. "That's a street bet, payoff of eleven-to-one. It got us fifty-five, but we lost that one." He indicated the red rectangle which marked his first bet.

"So now we've got sixty?" Maka clarified, her spirits lifting. "Maybe this won't be so bad after all."

"Don't get too comfortable," her partner warned with a smirk.

"Okay, round two!" Patty said, clapping her hands together. She reached across Maka and picked five chips off the pile. When she moved to place them on the board, Soul quickly grabbed her arm, making her jump in surprise.

"Wait," he warned. After another second, the single red chip that had marked the last winning number vanished, and Soul released Patty's arm. "If you place your next bet before the dealer removes that marker, you lose." Patty offered an apologetic smile, before handing him the chips she'd picked.

This time, Soul placed five chips on the leftmost space marked '2 to 1,' beneath a red square bearing the number 34, and five chips on the corner between numbers 11, 12, 14, and 15 (Maka asked why he didn't bet more, but he insisted it wouldn't be a good idea). Again the white ball appeared out of thin air and dropped onto the perpetually-spinning wheel, and again they all waited with baited breath before it came to a decided halt above the black number 35.

Soul cursed through his teeth as the voice relayed the result: "_Double loss. Fifty dollars._" Again the red marker chip appeared on the board, covering the number 35, but this time all but ten of their own blue chips disappeared. At the same time, Tsubaki was once again dropped several feet toward the fiery inferno below her feet, which seemed to rise even higher. Even at that distance, Maka could see sweat on her face from the heat. Black Star made a jerking movement as though he wanted more than anything to run straight to her. Maka felt a pang as she saw the fear evident on his face now.

"_One more spin,_" the voice went on."_Choose wisely._"

"Uh-oh," Liz breathed as Maka's throat tightened. The odds weren't in their favor.

As the red marker disappeared, Soul scanned the board. He placed half of their chips on the space reading 'Even,' but before he could take up the remaining five, Black Star reached over and grabbed the small pile.

"This isn't working," he complained, trying to hide the desperation in his voice. "Let me handle this." Predictably, he placed the stack of chips in the middle of the red space marked by the number 1.

Soul's eyes widened dangerously. "Black Star, that's not a good—" He froze as the white ball fell with an especially loud clatter onto the wheel. Their bets were placed. All six of them held their breath as the sphere bounced in what seemed like slow motion, dipping in and out of various numbered slots in the wheel. Maka's hands were shaking as it finally came to a sluggish halt…

…in the notch bearing the number 1.

"HA!" Black Star shouted in triumph as everyone released their nervous breath. "Take that! No one's luckier than me!" Despite the return of his cockiness, Maka could still sense the relief in his voice.

"I don't believe it…" Soul said, eyes glued to the still, white ball, a small smirk on his face.

"Was that enough?" Maka asked tentatively. They'd needed ninety dollars in order to win, after all.

If Soul's disbelieving grin wasn't answer enough, the voice spoke again, "_One win, one loss. One hundred-seventy dollars._"

"ALRIGHT!" Black Star cheered, pumping a fist in the air. He dashed around the table and addressed the voice, "We won your stupid game! Now give her back!" They all watched as the raging fire below Tsubaki shrank until it disappeared. All six of them hurried over, just as the mist dissipated, taking with it the force that had been holding Tsubaki up. With a surprised shout, she dropped toward the ground at a rapid speed. Maka barely had time to worry before Black Star caught her out of the air with seemingly no effort (though the impact against his bruised side made him grimace in pain). "Are you okay?" he demanded, setting her down on her feet and giving her a serious look.

Tsubaki looked back at her meister with tears in her eyes, before breaking down and throwing her bloody arms around his neck. He held onto her tightly as she leaned into his shoulder and tried to steady her choked up breathing. As the rest of them caught up, Maka noticed that Tsubaki's face was flushed and shining with a thin layer of perspiration, and that the cuts on her arms looked worse than ever, as though the strain of hanging by her wrists had irritated them further.

"Let's get out of here," she suggested warily, glancing around for signs of the mist. Before anyone could answer, however, the breathy voice from before began to chuckle almost cockily, as if it knew something that they didn't.

"What _now_?" Black Star demanded, separating himself from his partner (though retaining a firm hold on her hand) and glaring at the ceiling. "We already beat you once, that not enough for you?"

"_Remember the most important rule of gambling, kids,_" the voice almost seemed to taunt them.

Then, for what felt like the millionth time that night, the lights went out all at once, throwing them into a deep, empty darkness. A few of them shouted in surprise, and Maka heard Soul say, "Not again!"

Finally the voice finished, "_Sometimes, even when you win, you lose._" A dark sense of foreboding swept over Maka's senses, making her stagger in alarm. She heard a gasp from somewhere to her left, then once again without warning the lights flashed back to life, temporarily blinding her.

When she looked around, none of them looked hurt, which filled Maka with relief. _But then… what did they…?_ she wondered. Glancing to the left, she saw Tsubaki, and assumed it must have been her who'd gasped in the dark. She was staring at a space on the ground in front of her with wide eyes, her expression one of mixed fear and confusion. Her right hand was raised slightly, her fingers shaking.

As Maka was about to ask her what was wrong, she felt her stomach drop in realization. Tsubaki hadn't been standing alone when the lights had gone out, and a quick and frantic survey of the area proved Maka's worst suspicion true.

Black Star was gone.

* * *

><p>DUN DUN DUUUUUUNNNNN! (I warned you, hahaha). Weeeeell, now we've lost Black Star. Whatever shall we do? Guess we'll just have to wait 'til next time to find out, eh? (Also, I think this is gonna end up being somewhere around 7 or 8 chapters... But I'm not entirely sure so we'll see what happens)<p>

Also as a side note, I've never actually played roulette in my life, I just know the basic rules and the board layout and stuff. So if my scoring or something was totally off, that'd be why, haha. Sure, I'm old enough to gamble, but that doesn't mean I actually do it, hahaha XD But just go with me, kay?

Catch y'alls on the flipside!

-oMM


	5. Beat the Dealer

So... So. ...So. ...How's everybody? Good? Good? That's great! Heh heh...

Yeah, okay, so sorry doesn't even begin to cover it. I know it's been... what, like 6 months since I last updated this? It's not gonna sound good, but I'm gonna be completely honest with you: I actually forgot all about this after the holidays. I could've updated a while ago, but I honestly forgot about it (which is another reason it's great that I outline all my stories before writing them, otherwise there's no way I would've remembered where I was going with this XP). Then last week, I got a lovely review from **asdf123150**, which brought it all back. So I worked on it and finally got this chapter finished! I can only hope it's good enough to sort of lessen the ridiculousness of the wait I put everyone through.

So here we go finally... And feel free to yell at me for taking so long, I can't say I don't deserve it T_T haha.

And don't forget to say thanks to **asdf123150** for her awesome review and for kicking my rear into gear and getting me back into this story! She's got my thanks, that's for damn sure. This one's for you!

* * *

><p>The dim lighting and echo of pounding rainfall did little to raise the dampened, fearful spirits of the group as they entered the hotel lobby, the casino doors slamming closed behind them. They couldn't be sure of the time, owing to the dark clouds hovered over them blocking the moon and sun, but they knew it had been hours since they'd all woken at midnight. It had to be early morning at least.<p>

But at that moment, they had other things to worry about.

"We have to find him," Maka said resolutely, pacing back and forth across the center of the lobby.

"I can't believe this is happening again…" Tsubaki said in a small voice, her face pale as Liz and Patty wrapped torn sheets around her cut arms. Maka couldn't help but agree with her.

"I guess we should split up and search the place again," she suggested, biting her lip. It wasn't exactly what she wanted to do, but she felt it was the easiest way.

"I don't think we should separate again," Liz said apprehensively. "You never know what might happen this time…"

"Maybe we should go and get help," Kid began slowly, sounding almost reluctant.

Maka rounded on him, saying, "And leave Black Star here? We can't do that."

"This is obviously way out of our hands," he argued seriously. "We're completely at their mercy here. I think we should get out of here while we can and find someone who _can_ handle this sort of thing."

"You're just saying that because you and Black Star don't get along," she countered icily, glaring at him.

Kid looked genuinely surprised and vaguely offended by the sudden accusation. "That's got nothing to go with it—!"

"You just don't care what happens to him, do you?"

"Of course I do! But I also care what happens to the rest of us! If we—"

"Then don't you think we should all help each other here? I know what I'm doing, okay?"

"Maybe if you stopped letting your fear speak for you, you'd see the mess we're in right—!"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Soul shouted over them, slicing through the air with his arm. A flash of what looked like pain shot across his face afterward, and he hunched over slightly and wrapped an arm around his stomach.

Anger changing to alarm, Maka looked at him in surprise and asked tentatively, "Are you okay?"

He shook his head and stood up straight. "Fine. Probably just hungry." A pointed glare touched his face as he eyed Kid and Maka. "Look, fighting isn't gonna get us anywhere. If we wanna get through this, we have to work together. That's always been our strong point, right?" He raised his eyebrows at the two meisters, who looked at each other for a long moment.

After a few seconds of silence, Kid sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, a brief but visible shiver running through his body. "You're right," he conceded. "We're a team. If anyone can beat this, we can."

"You're right, too," Maka admitted. "I _was _letting my fear get the better of me, and I shouldn't have accused you of being careless. …I'm sorry." She offered a small apologetic smile, which he returned.

"Whatever you wanna do, I'll help you." Just then, thunder once again crashed just outside the building, making the dim lights flicker dangerously, and Kid added, "Looks like even if we did leave, we wouldn't make it far in this storm."

Soul shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around. "So where do we start?" he wondered aloud.

As Maka tried to think of a solution, Patty said, "I've got an idea. The ghosts seemed to like gambling, right? How about we go into the casino and play around until they come out?"

The others shrugged in admission as Kid replied, "It's as good an idea as any. Let's go."

Maka felt a shiver of cold run through her as they once again entered the wide, brightly-lit casino area. As Tsubaki, Liz, and Patty wandered aimlessly toward the slot machines on the right side of the room, Maka, Soul, and Kid made their way for the nearest card table and sat down. Maka suggested a few games of blackjack, that being the only card game she fully knew how to play and not wanting to waste time by having the boys instruct her on another. The others nodded solemnly, none of them acknowledging the anxious silence hanging in the air around them, and Kid lifted a deck from the stock station and began shuffling.

No sooner had they all been dealt two cards than the all-too-familiar mist began to slowly creep across the floor. Maka swallowed hard and exchanged glances with her companions, but didn't say a word. As they played each slow hand, that whispered voice from before returned as well. At first, Maka couldn't make out what it was saying, but as the game progressed the voice became stronger. And when finally it was over and she'd won, it said near her ear, "_Congratulations._"

Taking a slow breath, Maka asked in the calmest voice she could muster, "What do you want?"

It was silent for a moment, then, "_To be free._"

Puzzled, Maka repeated, "Free? What do you mean?"

"_Only tonight…_" was the only reply.

Maka glanced at Soul and Kid, who looked just as confused and frustrated as she felt. Kid tightened his jaw and said in a level voice, "If you want us to help you, then we need our friend back first."

The mist seemed to hiss after this and Maka briefly wondered if they'd been too sudden, when it answered cryptically, "_Then let's raise the bar a little…_"

To all of their annoyance, the lights flashed off once more, only to return to life seconds later. Maka rubbed her eyes as Soul complained, "I really wish they'd stop doing that…"

Maka opened her mouth to respond when she heard a faint, muffled shout accompanied by a dull pounding. She whirled around to face the center of the room, and her eyes widened when they came to rest on the empty glass cylinder in the middle of the giant fountain—except it wasn't empty anymore. Black Star was inside it.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki yelled from across the room as she and the sisters ran from a row of slot machines. Black Star opened his mouth and tried to say something, but once again his voice was muffled by the glass. He looked unharmed, which they all were grateful for, but she could tell by his movements that the injury to the ribs on his right side was no better than before.

"Let's break it open," Maka said needlessly as they all gathered around the base of the fountain. They soon learned, however, that for how fragile the structure appeared to be, even their best efforts proved useless in attempting to even scratch its surface. She wasn't sure what it was made of, but whoever had designed it had clearly taken every precaution that it were impossible to break. Even the weapons' attacks and Black Star's soul wave came up useless.

Soul clucked his tongue in annoyance. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know," Maka admitted as Black Star punched the glass from inside in frustration. "Maybe if we…" her voice trailed off into a gasp as the fountain suddenly came to life, slim streams of water spraying from its edges. Black Star jumped in surprise and they all glanced at the base of the cylinder, which had just begun to fill with water.

"Oh no…" Tsubaki said in a quiet, fearful voice as her meister took a step back from the glass, and Maka was surprised to see what looked like a twinge of fear in his eyes. Angry at their helplessness, she spun around and glared at the ceiling.

"What do you want with us?" she demanded. Once again there was no answer, which only fueled her frustration. Instead, the mist around the table she, Soul, and Kid had just vacated became more dense, making its meaning clear. They had to keep playing.

"This is getting ridiculous…" Soul observed with a shake of his head. But as the water level in the cylinder rose almost to Black Star's knees, they had little choice but to go along with the twisted charade.

This time when Maka, Soul, and Kid seated themselves around the table, the other three stayed close by, Tsubaki's wary eyes trained on the fountain a few yards away, inside which Black Star continued to slam on the glass uselessly every few seconds. "So… what do we have to do?" Maka asked, trying to keep the anxious impatience out of her voice as Kid finished shuffling the cards.

"_Beat the dealer…_" was the response. Then without warning, the mist rose and twisted itself around Kid's arms. His eyes widened as he suddenly began dealing out cards at an intense speed.

Maka jumped in surprise. "Kid, what's—?"

"I'm not doing it," he interrupted her through gritted teeth, like he were fighting against the mist which apparently had taken temporary control of his hands.

Maka shot a worried look at Soul, who she knew was thinking the same thing as she was. _So we're playing against them…_

"_Three rounds…" _the voice said when it had finished dealing. "_Best two…_" And so the game began.

The first round lasted only a few minutes—Maka had a feeling both she and Soul were taking less time to think than they should have been, due to the urgency of the situation. This was further proven when Kid—and through him, the mist—won the hand almost immediately.

A low, menacing laughter reverberated in the air around them, and Maka chanced a glance at the fountain to see that the water had begun to fill at a faster pace and was now up to Black Star's shoulders. Thankfully, the cylinder was roughly ten feet high, which meant that there was still plenty of air space above. But be that as it may, she didn't feel much better about their chances. Especially because now they had to win both the next two hands in order to free their friend.

Maka changed her attention back to the table as Kid dealt them another round. Glancing around, it was easy to see the fear on everyone's faces, though some hid it better than others. Tsubaki's eyes never left her meister, and her mouth was open a fraction of an inch as though she wanted to speak but was unable to find the right words. Liz and Patty stood protectively on either side of Kid, eyeing the mist almost nervously as it controlled him. Kid had a look of intense concentration on his face, his mouth twisted in a tight scowl as he glared at the cards in front of him. Clearly he didn't appreciate playing puppet to the mist, Maka realized. Soul looked the most calm, but Maka could tell by the way his eyes darted back and forth across the table that he was just as anxious as the rest of them.

The second round lasted a little longer, as Maka was careful to think hard about her decisions and analyze her opponents. She thought she had the hand, but it ended up going to her partner, which she didn't mind. At least they'd gotten one round.

"That's one-to-one," Patty observed as the mist used her meister to collect the cards and begin shuffling. "If you guys take this round, you win, right?"

Maka nodded solemnly as she chanced another look at the fountain, which she hadn't been watching due to her concentration on the game, and felt a sharp intake of breath at the progress of the water during that last hand.

Had Black Star been on the floor of the cylinder still, the water level would have risen almost two feet above his head. Of course, he'd had the sense to swim to the top, but even then, there was maybe two or two and a half feet of empty air left between him and the cylinder's ceiling.

They were running out of time.

With newfound determination, Maka quickly diverted her attention back to the game. As they played, she couldn't help but shoot the occasional glance at Tsubaki, whose expressions told her how much time they had left. When Soul took his last card and opted to stay his hand, Tsubaki gasped audibly and Maka allowed her eyes to dart toward the center of the room, where the cylinder had finished filling with water and was now reflecting colorful light across the entire casino. Black Star, now completely submerged in the clear water, had taken to pounding on the glass again in an effort to escape, though they all knew it would be futile. Maka found herself hoping beyond everything that he could hold his breath for just a little longer, just so she could take her turn and end this game.

After taking three cards from the dealer, Maka forced herself to stop and examine her hand and those of her opponents. In her hand she held a two of hearts and a two of diamonds, and on the table in front of her lay a five, and ace, and a seven. Altogether she now held 17 points—a risky number, so close to 21 that taking another card could be fatal but likely not close enough to win the hand. In front of Soul she could see a king and a three, and by the look in his eyes he wasn't sure of his victory based on the cards in his hand, which only worried Maka further. When she looked at Kid, his expression only intensified her anxiety. On the table before him, she saw only a single four of spades, but he was staring at her with an almost pained worry in his eyes—meaning that four added to the two cards in his hand gave him a chance of winning, which none of them wanted to happen.

Struck with a frightened indecision, Maka hesitated, before Tsubaki suddenly yelled, "No!" All three players whirled around just as Black Star's fists fell limp at his sides and his eyes slid closed, the last few bubbles of air rising from his mouth to the ceiling.

Maka spun around and yelled, "Hit me!" slamming her palm on the table. She couldn't win with a seventeen, and taking another card was her only chance. This game had to end.

The low laughter from before began to sound again as the mist forced Kid to deal her one last card. Maka felt like her heart stopped as he placed it in front of her and flipped it over.

A four of hearts.

"Blackjack!" she shouted in relieved surprise, adrenaline returning to her veins as she flipped her two hidden cards to show that she'd won.

The laughter stopped abruptly and the voice whispered, "_Your game…_"

Soul rose to his feet so fast his chair fell over behind him. "Alright, we won! Now let Black Star—"

A loud shattering sound cut off the rest of his sentence, and they all turned to see the glass cylinder break into hundreds of tiny pieces, all of which rushed out onto the floor amid the gallons of water and their friend—who rolled onto his hands and knees and began violently coughing up water.

"Black Star!" Tsubaki screamed, though Maka could hear the relief in her voice as she rushed over, kicking through the shallow water as it spread far across the marble floor in tiny waves. It reached the table they were gathered around and the mist seemed to hiss in anger when the water touched it, before it thinned and disappeared altogether. Finally free, Kid jumped up from the table and pulled Liz and Patty away from where the mist had been seconds before. Then all five of them followed Tsubaki toward the broken fountain, which had ceased to flow upon the shattering of the glass cylinder.

Tsubaki dropped to her knees and put her hand on her meister's shoulder as he finished coughing and remained still, breathing heavily. "Are you okay?" she asked him carefully, tears in her eyes.

"I am _never_…" Black Star said breathlessly, "taking a bath… again."

Maka let out a giddy laugh as relief washed over her. If he could still crack jokes, then he was all right. "Some of us who share a team with you may not support that decision," she replied with a grin.

The tense atmosphere from moments before had completely vanished with the solidity of the cylinder, and the relief was clear on everyone's faces as Black Star pushed himself off the ground and sat back on the floor amid the shallow pool of water. Well, almost everyone—Tsubaki's expression had instantly changed from frightened worry to heated anger as she glared at her meister.

"You idiot!" she scolded, surprising everyone in the circle by raising her hand and smacking Black Star hard across the face.

"What the hell—?" he demanded, eyes wide with shock as the rest of the group grew silent.

"That was your fault!" Tsubaki continued, her face flushed with fury. "If you hadn't antagonized them like you did, they wouldn't have gone after you!"

"After what they did to you?" Black Star shot back. "You're saying I was supposed to just let it go? Nobody hurts you and gets away with it! Not while I'm around!"

"Yes, but if you keep acting this way, you may not _be_ around to protect me anymore!" Tsubaki shrieked, causing Black Star to fall silent. He blinked and looked at the ground, seemingly avoiding his partner's eyes. When Tsubaki spoke again, her voice was softer. "You don't want to see me get hurt, I know. …But don't you think that goes the same for me, too? I… I can't stand it when you throw yourself into danger like that. I just want you to be more careful, okay? …For me?"

A small smile found its way to Black Star's face, and he suddenly looked more humble and less like his loud, cocky self than Maka had possibly ever seen him before, in all the years she'd known him. It was so strange that she couldn't help but smile as well. Tsubaki was the only one who could ever get through to the headstrong teen, and Maka really admired that about her. As different as they were, they really were perfect together.

"You're right," he admitted quietly. Then he surprised everyone further by saying, "I'm sorry."

Tsubaki silently watched him for a moment, before finally breaking down and lunging forward, throwing her arms around his neck as tears fell from her eyes. He didn't hesitate to return the embrace.

Maka averted her eyes, feeling slightly like an intruder, though not really understanding why she should feel that way. After a moment, Soul cleared his throat and said, "Hate to break up the party, but shouldn't we be getting out of this room? I'm starting to hate this casino…" Unsurprisingly, no one disagreed.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"_Now_ can we get out of here?" Black Star suggested impatiently as Tsubaki wrapped a towel around his shoulders. "We've got everybody together. So let's just go."

There were a few murmured agreements, but Maka bit her lip in thought, her mind returning to the brief conversation they'd had with the bodiless voice back in the casino. "I don't know…" she said in a strained voice, causing her friends to look at her inquisitively. "Remember what they said? How they wanted to be free?"

"Don't all trapped ghosts?" Black Star argued, finally seeming to buy into the whole 'ghost' idea that he'd been so against hours ago.

"Yeah, but…" Maka replied vaguely, having difficulty putting her thoughts into cohesive words.

"What is it?" Soul asked carefully, taking a few steps closer to her.

"There's just… something bugging me about this whole thing," she went on. "They said they wanted to be free. They also said 'Only tonight.' And earlier, they kept telling me, 'Your blood.' I just feel like we have to find out what it all means." She glanced at Kid, who looked thoughtful and who she'd decided was the most likely to go along with her request to stay. "That's why we were sent here in the first place, right? Since when do we abandon a direct order?" That did it. Kid's eyes snapped onto hers and he nodded shortly.

"I agree with Maka," he said with a frown as Maka inwardly grinned.

"You serious?" Black Star asked, shaking loose water out of his hair.

"I don't like it here any more than you do," Kid replied, "but Maka's right—we're here to figure out what's going on and see if we can stop it. So far a lot's happened, but we're no closer to discovering the truth. I don't think we should give up yet."

"But people are getting hurt," Liz argued in a sort of careful voice. "What if something else happens and we're just not as lucky as we've been so far?"

"We'll just have to be more careful," Kid answered calmly. "I know you're afraid—we all are—but we haven't been taught to run or to give up when we're lost or confused. We've been taught to stick together and stick at it, and figure something out. To fight." Patty giggled and pumped her fist in the air, and Maka was glad Kid had been the first to see things her way. He would be much better at convincing the others than she would. "Besides, this isn't the worst we've faced, is it?" he added. "And even if it is, when we beat it, we'll just be that much stronger for it."

Black Star smirked. "Stronger, huh?" he said, rolling up the damp towel and hanging it on his shoulder, before crossing his arms in front of him. "Count me in." Tsubaki chuckled and placed a hand on his arm, nodding her assent.

Soul took Maka's hand and gave her a reassuring smile, saying, "Alright, then. Let's do what we do." She grinned and squeezed his hand in thanks.

"Liz?" Kid asked as Maka noticed she still looked apprehensive. And was she imaging it, or was Liz looking at Kid with a hint of fear in her eyes? She must not have been mistaken, unless she also imagined Liz take a step away from her meister and a brief look of hurt cross his face. Something was definitely off between the two of them.

"C'mon, sis!" Patty took over, touching her sister's arm gently.

Liz glanced at Patty and sighed, shaking her head in defeat. "Well, I can't let Patty stay without me," she finally said.

"Then it's settled," Maka continued. "So… where do we start?"

As if mocking their sudden confidence, a flash of lightning struck and again every light went out, throwing them into darkness (though this time, there was a very slight glow from the windows due to the early morning sky, but the rainclouds were sure to keep too much light from getting through).

"Well, we could start with the fuse box," Soul suggested dryly from beside Maka as she pulled out the flashlight she'd carried before, Patty following suit and brandishing the other. It was almost funny that the loss of electricity no longer frightened any of them, after its having happened so often in the past night.

"There's no need for all of us to go back downstairs," Maka noted. "How about we split into two groups? One to go try the fuse box and one to stay here in case something happens."

It was decided quickly after that since Soul had been the one to fix the lighting before, he and Maka would be returning to the basement. Kid, who could fight without a weapon if the need arose, would be going with them. That way, Liz and Patty, who could wield one another in a fight, would stay in the lobby with Black Star and Tsubaki and keep a lookout.

Having been there before, Maka and Soul knew exactly where they were going, and thankfully had a relatively uneventful trip downstairs. Maka handed Soul the flashlight and in no time the electricity flared back on, the single light bulb above them flickering to life.

"This is getting ridiculous…" Soul complained as he slammed the fuse box shut. "Who knows how long it'll stay on this time."

"What's that?" Kid asked suddenly, sounding alarmed. Maka turned to see him staring wide-eyed at the far wall, on which was displayed the great, blue-and-purple symbol she had uncovered on their last visit to the room.

"Oh!" Maka breathed. "Liz, Patty, and I found that last time we were down here—right before they found you in the freezer. With everything that's happened today, I'd forgotten all about it!" Soul raised his eyebrows at her, as if to say, _'How could you forget something like that?'_ She only shrugged and offered a sheepish smile.

Kid stepped up to it, a troubled expression on his face. "It looks like a sealing spell," he explained.

"A sealing spell?" Maka repeated.

He nodded, tracing one of the lines with his finger. "Definitely the work of a witch, though good or evil I can't tell. You didn't sense anything, did you?"

Maka shook her head. "Nothing. If it was a witch that cast that spell, she's long gone by now."

"Hm…" Kid mused. "I guess that makes sense. This doesn't look new. If the hotel was re-opened roughly six months ago, I'm guessing this mark was here before construction on the renovated sections of the building even began. Probably long before."

"Do you think this is what's keeping the ghosts here?" Soul wondered (they'd settled on calling the entities 'ghosts' for lack of a better term).

"It's possible," Kid answered thoughtfully. "Probable, actually. But sealing spells like this one tend to have a weakness of some kind, especially ones of this size. Maybe this one's been growing weaker over time, and that's why the hotel has been experiencing so much trouble lately."

"So if we can figure out what the weakness is, we might be able to fix it and keep the ghosts under control," Maka realized, a small glimmer of hope brightening her mood.

Kid turned to face her with a faint smile. "Maybe," he answered. It was a small possibility, Maka knew, but it was a possibility all the same. Maybe this venture wasn't as hopeless as they'd begun to believe.

"But what could it be?" Soul asked rhetorically, leaning against the wall beside the fuse box.

"I don't know," Kid admitted almost reluctantly, his eyes running over the symbol once more. They came to rest on a spot near the bottom right corner of the circle, and he frowned in thought. "'K.A.'…?" he said cryptically.

"What?" Maka asked, coming to stand beside him. "Where do you see that?"

"Right here," he replied, tracing the letters with his finger. Soon enough, Maka realized he was right. Amid the twisted lines and shapes there was a very distinct _'KA' _formed, both hidden and obvious at the same time.

"What does it mean?" Maka asked, hoping it was some sort of clue to the secrets of this spell.

Kid only shook his head. "No idea," he answered vaguely. "It could be anything. It could even be an accident, but I don't think it was…"

"Maybe we should go ask the others," Maka suggested after a moment of useless thought on the subject. "They might have some ideas." Kid and Soul nodded their agreement, and they all left the basement.

When the three returned to the now-brightly-lit lobby, they found their friends huddled around the collapsed front desk, whispering about something.

"Hey, guys," Maka began, causing them all to turn and look at them. "We found something interesting…"

The four of them exchanged glances, before Tsubaki said, "…So did we," all of them watching Maka with strange expressions of surprise, sadness, and confusion.

Maka slowed her step, growing slightly nervous under their stares. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" she asked apprehensively.

"What's that?" Kid asked abruptly, eyeing the sheet of paper in Tsubaki's hand.

"A letter," Tsubaki answered in a strained voice as Kid strode up and took the paper from her, "written to the current owner of the hotel. It's dated about a year and a half ago."

"'Dear Mr. Smith,'" Kid read aloud from the paper. "'The last time we met I tried to explain to you the danger of what you're planning with the Alamo Grand. I understand that such a place would be an ideal tourist attraction, being so near the city, but I still want you to consider the repercussions that I was sure to make clear before. You know of my spell, and of why I had to cast it.'" _So this is from the witch! _Maka realized. "'I warned you how dangerous it would be to re-open the hotel. My spell can only hold the revenants within that building, which is why I'm telling you not to allow people inside. They aren't like other souls, otherwise the Academy could easily eliminate them. But their headmaster knows this, and that's why I was asked to help.

"'If after all my warnings you still insist on re-opening, then let me at least give you some advice. Normally, the revenants won't be able to do much harm because of the limitations placed by my spell. However, on Halloween, their strength will grow and possibly become greater than mine. With so much evil energy in one place, it'll be easy for them to take advantage of the strong link between the worlds on Halloween and attempt communication with the living. That's when my spell will be weakest, and with the right help, they may even be able to break it. So I'm telling you now—do not let them outside. Do not speak with them. Do not help them. Do not think for one second that these revenants want anything less than evil. Building the original hotel over a battle site was foolish enough, and if you'll remember, it was closed down for much the same reason years ago.

"'I don't want to see history repeat itself. And the only way to avoid it is if you heed my warnings and the hotel remains abandoned. Signed—'" Suddenly, Kid's voice broke off and his eyes widened at the paper.

"What is it?" Maka demanded. They'd already just learned so much about what was happening, why was he stopping now?

Kid looked up at Maka in disbelief, a look she didn't see on him often. "K.A.," he said in a voice just above a whisper.

More than a little anxious now, Maka grabbed the paper from his hand and read the name at the bottom, her stomach dropping when she did so.

_Kami Albarn._

Maka's voice caught in her throat and she barely managed to choke out, "Mother…"

* * *

><p>DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN! (What, it's been a while! haha)<p>

So obviously I'm taking a hell of a lot of artistic license with this story, seeing as next to nothing is known about Kami and I just decided "Hey, let's make her a witch!" I mean, people can be both witches and meisters. Just look at Kim, haha. More will be explained in the future, so I won't go into the strange inner workings of my insane brain now.

Sorry again for my complete idiocy with this story... Now that it's back on I can hopefully finish it soon. It'll have either one or two more chapters, depending on how much I can squeeze into the next one. Either way we don't have much to go now!

Review for me? Maybe? Pretty please? It's thanks to a certain review that this chapter even exists, after all... haha.

-oMM


	6. Guess Playtime's Over

Guess what, guys? LAST CHAPTER! That's right, I fit it all into this one final chapter! Kind of sad to see this go, but at the same time it's nice to be done with it. Hope you like the ending, I tried to make it interesting (And I wrote some of this chapter from Patty's POV to shake things up a bit! haha).

Welp, here goes the final one! Hooray!

* * *

><p>Patty bit her lip and watched as Maka stared at the old letter with a blank expression on her face. "My mom…" the scythe meister said slowly, "is a witch?"<p>

"It's… not all that weird, really," Patty insisted, forcing a shrug. She was just as surprised as everyone else, but when you thought about it, what did it change, really? "I mean, some witches are good, right? And she's obviously helped a lot of people in the past. This spell, too. It must have been meant to keep these ghosts from hurting anyone."

"That's definitely true," Liz agreed with her sister. "But… Does this mean Maka's a witch too?"

"Not likely," Kid answered. "Witches don't pass on that quality to their children. Being able to do magic—whether dark or light—is an ability born in only certain individuals, regardless of their parentage. Witches' children do tend to have other special traits, though."

"Like her ridiculous soul perception?" Black Star pointed out. Kid nodded.

"But still," Maka went on, shaking her head and shoving the letter into Soul's hands, clearly not wanting to look at it any longer, "why didn't she tell me? And my dad, he had to know. Why… Why would they keep this from me?"

"Well, before everyone found out about Kim, it was thought that all witches were evil, right?" Soul suggested. He put a hand on Maka's shoulder and said carefully, "They were probably just trying to protect you."

Maka shook off her partner and rebutted, "But there were plenty of opportunities after that, weren't there?"

Soul shrugged. "They probably thought you'd freak out." Maka opened her mouth to argue, but Soul gave her a pointed look and said, "Like you're doing now." Maka looked down and shut her mouth, before sitting down heavily on the nearest pile of rubble from the front desk. Her partner sighed and sat down next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

It must have been a lot to take in, Patty wondered, finding out like this that your mother wasn't what you'd thought she was your whole life. Patty didn't even remember her mother, she'd been so young when she and her sister had run away from home. She glanced at Liz and briefly wondered if she'd been thinking the same thing. On Liz's other side, she caught a glimpse of their meister, who had a strange look on his face, like he were trying very hard to figure something out. "Kid?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "What's wrong?"

He looked over at her as everyone else turned their attention to him. "What bothers me most about this letter isn't its sender, but what it says about us. And my father."

Soul, who was still holding the letter, lifted it and read aloud, "'…They aren't like other souls, otherwise the Academy could easily eliminate them. But their headmaster knows this, and that's why I was asked to help.'"

"So Lord Death knew about Kami?" Tsubaki said. "And he knew about what was going on here?"

"Then… why would he send us here if he knew there was nothing we could do?" Liz asked, sounding worried.

"That's exactly what's been bugging me since we got here," Kid explained. "And now I have even more reason to believe we were set up."

Everyone was silent for a minute, before Black Star said slowly, "What do you mean, 'set up'?"

Kid looked at each of them carefully, and Patty began to get nervous. When he was this serious, something was definitely wrong. "Do you guys remember everything that happened yesterday?"

"Of course," Black Star answered. "Lord Death sent us on this mission like, first thing in the morning. How could we forget?"

"Right," Kid agreed. "But we didn't get here until evening. What happened during the day?"

Black Star opened his mouth to answer, but paused before speaking. He scratched his head, looking sort of confused. "I think I went back to bed. It was early, after all."

Kid nodded, as though he was expecting that answer. "That's what I remember, too." When Patty thought back, she realized they were right. She, Liz, and Kid had gone back home and back to sleep. They'd woken up later that day to get ready to leave for the mission. Glancing around, she noticed the others give signs of assent. She hadn't really thought about it before, but it was definitely strange.

"Okay, so… what are you saying?" Black Star asked impatiently.

"What if what we remember never actually happened?" Kid said tentatively. "This is gonna sound crazy, but… what if we all just had the same dream? And we hadn't gotten up that morning at all?"

"You're kidding," Black Star scoffed. "How's that possible? There's no way we could all have had the same dream."

"Really?" Kid challenged. "Because it seems to me that the only ones that could benefit from our being here are the ghosts." Black Star fell silent, staring at Kid in disbelief. And he wasn't the only one. "Look. I don't know how they did it, but somehow they must have found out about Maka. It can't be a coincidence that the daughter of the one who trapped them here comes to visit on the one day that they can break out of this place." He turned to Maka, whose eyes were unfocused as she tried to process all this information. "They must have brought you here to free them somehow."

"'Your blood'…" Maka said quietly. When the others looked at her with puzzled expressions, she looked up and explained, "That's what they kept saying to me. 'Your blood'. I understand now, they meant my mother."

"So if you were to open the door and let them out," Kid concluded, "it would be like her lifting her spell. That must be what they're after. And it has to be today, when the spell is weakest."

"So all this time, they've been trying to scare us into accidentally setting them free?" Patty realized. It made sense, she supposed. But if these ghosts were willing to do anything to get free, then things were probably about to get worse. They were running out of time, after all.

"Which means we're stuck here until midnight," Soul pointed out. He lifted an arm and gestured to the clock high above the front doors. "Only eleven. Looks like we've got about thirteen hours of this game of cat and mouse to go. What do you guys wanna do?"

"I'd kind of like to try and get some rest, actually," Maka suggested. "It's been a really long day already, and it's not even noon." Patty wasn't really tired, to be honest, but seeing as everyone else agreed with Maka she wasn't about to argue. She knew some of them really needed a little sleep.

Before long, they were locked almost comfortable in one of the first floor hotel rooms, wanting to stay as close to the ground floor as possible. Maka was asleep almost instantly.

"I'm gonna keep watch outside," Black Star said, heading for the door.

"Wait," Tsubaki said, grabbing his arm. She didn't say anything, only gave him a serious stare.

Black Star shook his head and smiled at her. "Don't worry, okay? I won't go looking for trouble. I just wanna try and keep the rest of you out of it." Tsubaki smiled and let him go, watching silently as he stepped outside the room and quietly closed the door.

Kid was watching the door, as though contemplating following Black Star. Patty rounded on him at once. "Oh, no you don't, mister," she said, making him jump in surprise. "You're still sick. You need sleep."

He glared at her, and she fought back a laugh. Something about the situation just made her feel more like they were home on a rainy day than stuck in a haunted hotel. "That's not true, I'm fine," he insisted. But he wasn't fooling the younger Thompson sister. His skin was still paler than usual and she could easily tell he wasn't feeling well.

"Nope, bed," she ordered. "Tell 'im, sis." Patty turned to Liz for back-up, but was disappointed to see that her sister still seemed to be avoiding their meister's eyes. Something had definitely happened between the two of them before the incident with Tsubaki, and Patty would have given anything to know what it was.

"Let him do what he wants," Liz said carelessly, before lying down halfway between the fireplace and the window and falling silent.

Patty clucked her tongue in annoyance. "Fine, be that way," she muttered. Without another word, she pulled the folded blanket from the foot of Tsubaki's bed and shoved it into Kid's arms, before forcing him onto the ground. "Get some sleep," she told him seriously. "If anything happens, Black Star'll wake us, 'kay?" When he finally gave in, Patty returned to her place against the wall beneath the window.

Still not the least bit tired, she lay awake for a while and listened to her friends in the room around her. Soul feel asleep next, followed quickly by Tsubaki. Kid and Liz remained awake, as far as Patty could tell, which was sort of frustrating. She knew it wasn't her place to try and fix whatever was wrong between them, but that didn't mean she was okay with it. She hated it, in fact. Yesterday, everything with their team was perfectly fine. They were working together as they always did. Then they came to this stupid hotel and everything got messed up. With a pang, Patty remembered late last night when she'd urged her sister to confess her secret crush on their meister. Maybe she finally had, and he'd turned her down? Was this partly Patty's fault? But that couldn't be. There was no way it would end like that. Patty prided herself in how well she knew her sister and meister, and she was confident that it would work out between them, otherwise she wouldn't have been so eager with Liz. So what was going on?

Suddenly, Patty heard a sharp gasp from above her. She looked over to see Tsubaki sit bolt upright in bed, breathing heavily. Patty was about to get up and ask if she was alright, when Tsubaki's breathing slowed to normal and she shook her head. _Must have been a nightmare,_ Patty wondered, feeling sympathetic. Tsubaki looked around the room, then quietly got out of bed and hurried to the door. She pulled it open almost frantically, causing Black Star—who must have been leaning against it—to fall backward into the room. He jumped to his feet and spun around.

"What is it? What's wrong?" he demanded in an urgent whisper. "Did something happen?"

Tsubaki let out a shaky sigh and hugged him tightly. "It was a dream," she said, more to herself than to him. Patty wondered briefly what had happened in the dream. It must have been bad to scare her like that.

"Hey, it's okay," Black Star said quietly. "Why don't you keep watch with me? We could both use some company, I guess." Tsubaki nodded with a small smile, and they both disappeared into the hall, the door closing quietly behind them.

As Patty turned her attention from the door, she could tell she wasn't the only one still awake. Kid was sitting up, leaning against the empty fireplace. His eyes were staring at the window, where rain was still falling in sheets. Liz was lying on her side, back to the fireplace. Her gaze was trained on the front door, a sad expression on her face. Patty was about to say something to them, when a better idea hit her. Maybe if they thought she was asleep, and that they were alone, they'd finally talk to each other. She thanked the dim light from the window above her that shone on the beds and cast her completely in shadow, and made her breathing as steady as she could. She didn't move, just waited and watched.

After a few long minutes, Patty noticed silent tears start to fall from her sister's eyes. She wanted to comfort her, to at least find out what was wrong, but when Kid's eyes traveled to Liz's back, Patty stayed silent.

"Liz?" he finally whispered her name. She breathed in sharply, but didn't reply. "I know you're awake," he said in an almost sad voice. "I wish you'd stop avoiding me and just… talk to me."

When Liz didn't reply, Patty wondered briefly if that was all that she was going to see. But after a minute of silence, her sister said so quietly Patty almost didn't hear, "I'm scared."

"Trust me, you're not the only one," Kid replied in a wry voice.

"No, I mean…" Liz finally sat up, though she still kept her back to Kid. "I'm scared of you."

The surprise was clear on Kid's face, but also Patty could see a hint of regret in his eyes. "Me?"

"I just… I can't do this anymore," Liz admitted, more tears falling from her eyes.

"Do what?" Kid asked, his voice rising above a whisper. Liz only shook her head and lowered it further. "Liz… Would you just look at me?" As he said this, he stalked over to her and knelt behind her, grabbing her shoulders and spinning her around to face him. The look on his face was a mix of frustration and desperation, and as much as Patty felt bad for her sister and her pain, she couldn't help but catch her breath and watch eagerly as the scene played out. "Look, what happened before… You surprised me, okay? You caught me off guard, which isn't easy to do. I don't want us to just avoid each other forever. I want to talk to you." _'What happened before'? _Patty wondered silently. So something did happen between them. And by the look of things, it was important.

Liz sniffed loudly and wiped away the tears on her face, trying to calm herself down. "I'm sorry," she said finally. "About… everything."

Kid shook his head. "You don't have to be sorry," he told her.

"Yes, I do," she argued. "I didn't mean to break up our team."

"What are you talking about?" Kid asked with a frown. "Who said we're—?"

"We're friends, right?" Liz asked suddenly. Kid looked puzzled, and even Patty was having a hard time following everything her sister was saying. Where was she headed with this conversation? If only Patty could have given Liz a bit of a pep talk before this one.

"Yes…" Kid answered carefully, also clearly unsure where this was going.

"Then let's just… forget what happened earlier so we can stay that way, okay?" Liz finally choked out.

Patty was still a bit confused, but she was glad to see realization dawn on Kid's face. He at least finally understood what Liz was getting at, and why she was acting this way. He was quiet for a minute, eyes darting back and forth as though searching for the right thing to say. When he remained quiet, Liz let out a sigh and started to turn back away and lie down, but stopped when Kid put his hand on her arm. She looked at him with an almost fearful expression, and when he spoke again his voice was so low Patty had to hold her breath to hear it. "What if 'friends' isn't good enough?"

Liz's expression changed instantly from fear to confusion. "What do you mean?"

Kid's jaw tightened as he gave her a serious look. "What if I told you… you showed me there's something better?"

_Is he saying what I think he's saying?_ It was taking all Patty had to keep perfectly still and quiet. The last thing she wanted to do right now was interrupt.

A small smile crept across Liz's face, accompanied by a light blush, as she asked tentatively, "You mean… we're okay?" Patty grinned in the darkness when she took note of how close they were.

"Better than okay," Kid answered, mirroring her smile as he leaned the last few inches in and kissed her.

Unable to contain herself completely, Patty let out a tiny squeal of excitement, before clamping her mouth shut. Thankfully, they didn't appear to have heard her. She slowly let out the breath she forgot she'd been holding, and allowed a wide grin to slide over her face in the darkness. It had finally happened. Her paranoid sister had finally told Kid everything and it couldn't have gone better. …Well, okay, it _could_ have gone a little better, but it all turned out okay in the end, right? Just like Patty knew it would. She'd owe Liz an 'I told you so' later on, but it wasn't quite the time or place for such a thing right then. Maybe after this whole ghost thing was over.

The sound of coughing snapped Patty's attention back to her sister and meister, the latter of whom had backed away from the former and was coughing unpleasantly, a hand on his chest. _I knew he was still sick,_ Patty thought inwardly with a shake of her head. It didn't sound serious, just a side effect of the cold he'd undoubtedly caught after spending the night in the freezer. But that didn't mean he shouldn't take it easy.

"I guess you _should_ get some rest," Liz said, her hand on Kid's shoulder. "While we still can, anyway." Kid smiled and nodded, before rising to his feet and heading back to his makeshift bed on the other side of the hearth. Liz was about to lie down when all of a sudden the fire sprang to life, an intense heat filling the room. The flames roared forward just as Kid reached the center of the hearth. He barely had time to notice them when Liz shouted, "Look out!" and threw herself toward him, pulling them both to the ground as a blaze of fire exploded where they'd just been standing.

"Guys!" Patty shouted, her sleep act completely forgotten in the face of the sudden attack. She was barely to her feet when the fire shrunk and disappeared, leaving only a number of glowing embers in the fireplace in its wake. Soul and Maka had risen as well at the commotion. "Are you two okay?" Patty asked in worry and fear.

"Fine," Kid answered, sitting up. Liz, however, didn't respond. She was breathing heavily, sweat on her face and her teeth clenched tight. "Liz? What's wrong?" Kid demanded. He grabbed her shoulder and rolled her onto her stomach. He breathed in sharply upon examining her back, which was covered in burns. They weren't too serious, since her skin wasn't broken at all. But the bright red marks must have been painful, and would need treatment.

As Kid jumped to his feet and rushed into the bathroom, the door opened and Black Star and Tsubaki entered, having heard the ruckus. When Kid returned with some cold, damp towels, it was quickly explained what had happened.

"It's almost six," Maka noted by the clock near the beds, after she and Patty returned from a trip to Liz and Patty's room for some un-burned clothes for Liz, whose wounds were looking much better. She was lucky, really. If she'd been seconds slower, she could have been hurt much worse. "Only six hours left. They must be getting desperate. We'd better not let our guard down again."

"But what are we gonna do for another six hours?" Black Star pointed out. "It's not like there's anywhere safe in this place."

Just then Patty felt her stomach growl loudly, and she guessed the others had heard when they all turned to look at her. She laughed and said, "How about we get something to eat to kill some time?"

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Did you sleep okay?"

Maka jumped as Soul sat down in the booth across from her, watching her carefully. "Well enough," she answered honestly. It was sort of a restless couple of hours, but she'd gotten a bit of sleep all the same, which she was glad for. The revelation about her mother that she'd received that morning had left her with a lot to think about, and she really wanted to have a clear head for the night that awaited them.

"It doesn't change anything, you know," Soul said suddenly.

Maka gave him a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," he insisted, shooting her a pointed look. "She's still your mom. And you're still you. Just because she's a witch doesn't make any of the things she did any less great. And it doesn't make you any less great either."

"But they lied to me," Maka said quietly, voicing the thing that had bothered her the most about the news. "Why wouldn't they tell me the truth? Didn't they trust me?"

"I seriously doubt that's it," Soul answered, waving a hand in the air. "Look, you know how overprotective that dad of yours is. I'd bet you anything he only kept the truth from you to protect you."

Maka sighed, wanting to argue but seeing his point. "Maybe you're right."

Soul smirked and said, "I am." He leaned back against the booth and rubbed his forehead with both hands, looking tired.

Maka frowned as she watched him. "Hey… Are you okay?" she asked seriously. "Ever since that dip in the pool earlier you've seemed… sick or something." She hadn't wanted to bring it up before, what with everything going on, but it wasn't like she hadn't noticed. His skin was now much paler than usual, and he looked exhausted. A few times that day, she'd seen a flash of what she was sure was pain on his face, but it was always gone a second later. And she couldn't write it off anymore.

"I'm fine," Soul answered honestly. "I'm just tired of this. Can't wait to get out of here, you know?"

"Yeah," Maka answered vaguely. She paused for a second, then said carefully, "You'd tell me… if you weren't feeling well, right?"

He hesitated for a fraction of an instant, but it was enough to make Maka's stomach turn in worry. "Of course," he replied with a smile, though he wasn't fooling her anymore.

"Hey, guys," Black Star said suddenly in an urgent voice, loud enough for everyone to hear, "we've got company." He jerked his head toward the restaurant door, as the evil mist began creeping through the cracks around it. "Guess playtime's over." Black Star jumped off the bar stool he'd been sitting on and stared at the mist, hands balled into fists.

"We've got to try and fight it off!" Kid yelled, getting to his feet as well. He took his weapons' hands (Maka noticed him squeeze Liz's hand and offer her a brief smile before she transformed; it looked like whatever was off between them before, they'd been able to work it out) and turned to the mist, firing shot after shot into it. It seemed to swirl around the spirit bullets, prolonging its advance but not halting it.

Black Star turned to Tsubaki, a wild look in his eyes. In a flash he was rushing toward the mist, his weapon's kusarigama form tight in his hands. He reached the foggy doorway and began attacking the air aimlessly, but after a few seconds the weapon seemed to fly from his hands and he barely had time to spin around before he was thrown out of the mist, landing with a crash behind the bar.

"This isn't working!" Maka said, climbing out of the booth. "Soul, we have to do something!"

"Right," he answered obediently. He jumped out of the booth and hurried to her side, reaching for her hand. But before she could take it, he cried out in sudden pain and hunched over, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Soul?" Maka began, reaching her hand toward his shoulder. Again, before she could get to him, he yelled again and dropped to his knees. His shoulders jerked violently and he began coughing hard, spitting blood on the wooden floor. "Soul!" Maka shouted in desperation. He was lying before. He wasn't fine. That black water had done something to him and he'd been hiding it all this time. Why? That was an easy question, she knew why. He did it so she wouldn't worry, so she could focus on what they had to do. And at that moment, she hated him for it.

Maka raised her head to glance around the room. Kid was still firing uselessly into the mist, looking more frantic with every shot. There was sweat on his face and he was breathing heavily. He was still sick as well, and he was using too much power. Tsubaki had landed on a table a few yards behind Maka, and was getting to her feet, rubbing the back of her head. Black Star had yet to resurface from behind the bar. They were getting nowhere, and if they didn't figure something out, it would all be over.

Maka wasn't sure anything had ever frightened her as much as this impossible mist. It seemed like it was always watching them, ever since they first set foot in the hotel the previous night. And no matter what they did, they couldn't stop it. And it was hurting her friends. It had locked Kid in the freezer, tried to drown Soul and Black Star, cut Tsubaki and Patty, and burned Liz. And all that time, they could do nothing to fight back. It had only disappeared when it felt like leaving. Or the few times it got wet.

And then it hit her: water. Twice she'd seen the mist hiss and dissipate when water touched it. She had no idea why, but if it worked, did it matter? With a sudden idea, she leapt to her feet. "Stay here, okay?" she ordered Soul as he fought against the ragged coughing fit. As she dashed across the room, she saw Kid's arms fall limp at his sides, guns landing on the floor. He dropped to his knees in exhaustion and Liz and Patty appeared on either side of him protectively, looking at each other in frantic worry. Maka reached the bar just as Black Star climbed shakily to his feet, eyes unfocused.

"Give me a bottle of wine!" Maka shouted at Black Star, who gave her a funny look.

"I don't think this is really the time for that—"

"Just do it!" Black Star raised his eyebrows at her urgency before hurriedly obliging. Maka spun around as fast as she could and hurled the bottle into the mist. It hit the floor and shattered, splashing dark liquid in every direction. Again, the mist seemed to hiss in anger where the moisture struck it, retreating to avoid the damp spots on the wooden floor.

Black Star's eyes widened and a grin appeared on his face. "How did you—?"

"It doesn't like liquid!" Maka shouted over her shoulder to the others. Tsubaki and Patty immediately followed suit and rushed over to the bar, grabbing whatever liquid they could find and throwing it mercilessly at the mist, which began retreating little by little. "It's working!"

Patty vaulted over the bar and ducked beneath it, emerging a second later holding the nozzle of a water hose. She jumped onto the bar, a wicked grin on her face, before pulling the handle and letting loose a steady stream of water. All of this was apparently too much for the mist to handle, and in seconds it was gone.

"Woo-hoo! Alright!" Patty shouted in triumph, before high-fiving Black Star and jumping down from the bar.

"What time is it?" Tsubaki asked, glancing around for a clock.

"Almost eight-thirty," Liz answered, pointing to the clock above the door. "Still three and a half hours to go."

_And it can't go fast enough…_ Maka thought as she knelt beside Soul, who had stopped coughing but was still breathing heavily and looked to be in some kind of pain. "Are you okay?" she asked. "Truth this time," she added seriously.

Soul didn't look at her, but shook his head slowly. Maka bit her lip and helped him into the booth they'd vacated not long before.

"Why didn't you say anything sooner?" she asked carefully, unable to keep the fear from her voice. She had no idea what was wrong with him, and even less of an idea of what to do about it.

"I didn't… want you… to worry," he answered between breaths. _Knew it…_ Maka thought. Of course that was it. That was the way he was, after all. "I didn't think… it was serious."

Under any other circumstances, she would have scolded him for lying to her about something so important, but in this case she forced herself to bite her tongue. They all needed to stick together right now if they wanted to get out of there, so instead she replied, "Just take it easy and hang in there, okay? We're almost out of here."

"What happened?" Maka heard Tsubaki ask from behind her. She turned to see her and Black Star watching with concerned and surprised expressions.

"I don't know exactly," she answered honestly. "That black water made him sick somehow, and it's getting worse. We have to get out of here as soon as we can."

As Black Star and Tsubaki sat down at the nearest table, Maka saw Liz and Patty pull Kid to his feet. He wasn't doing too great either. His face was pale, and he looked like he was fighting to keep from vomiting.

Liz looked over at Maka with a pleading expression. "Isn't there anything we can do? Anywhere we can go that's safe?"

Maka didn't answer right away, and instead strode to the door into the hallway. With a deep breath, she pulled it open an inch or so and peered out, gasping when she saw the dense fog that filled the entire hallway from floor to ceiling, making it impossible to see more than a foot in front of her. On top of that, she could hear bodiless voices whispering in the air, though she couldn't understand what they were saying. She shut the door tight and turned to the others, before saying solemnly, "Looks like they're getting serious."

Liz sighed in defeat and she and Patty led Kid to a table where they could all sit and rest for what little time they had left.

"It's official," Black Star said with a heavy sigh. "This is the worst Halloween ever."

-0-0-0-0-0-

The next few hours passed by relatively uneventfully, which everyone was more than grateful for. But the threat of the mist looming just outside the door was on everyone's mind, so it wasn't exactly easy to relax.

"It's after eleven-thirty," Tsubaki noticed upon glancing at the clock. She turned almost solemnly to the others. "What should we do? I doubt they'll let us stay here much longer."

"I say we make a break for the door," Black Star suggested, wringing his hands in frustration. "Watch the lobby clock and as soon as it hits midnight, we're gone."

Maka considered this for a minute, then admitted, "I agree. The sooner we get out of here, the better."

"Can you walk?" Patty asked Kid as everyone got to their feet. He offered a small smile and nodded, assuring her he was fine.

Maka turned to Soul, who hadn't moved from the booth since she'd forced him into it. "What about you?"

He shrugged and climbed out of the booth. "We'll find out."

"Not the answer I was hoping for," Maka replied, taking his hand and leading the way to the door. "Ready?" she addressed them all. Her only response was the collection of steely looks on their faces. They were as ready as they'd ever be. Maka took a deep breath and pulled the door open.

She had expected to see the hallway dense with mist like it had been before, but this time there was none in sight. "Huh?" she wondered aloud. "I know there was…"

"Let's just take advantage of this, okay?" Black Star said, shoving past her. "Come on!"

They hurried down the hall as fast as they could in their varying states of injury. They hadn't made it far, however, when Maka heard Liz shriek from behind her. They spun around to see the older sister on the ground.

"S-Something grabbed me," she said, and Maka saw instantly that she wasn't making it up. The dense mist she'd seen before was only yards behind them, and catching up fast.

"Run!" Maka ordered her friends, and no one had to think twice about obliging. Once again, though, she hadn't covered much distance before having to stop, this time because Soul had yanked his hand from hers and was leaning against the wall, breathing fast. "Soul, come on!" she shouted as the others stopped as well.

Her partner shook his head. "I—" His voice was broken as he began coughing violently, just like before. "Just go!" he yelled at Maka, his voice ragged.

"No!" she screamed in response, running over to him as he slid to the ground, looking weaker by the second. "I'm not leaving you here!"

He pushed her away from him and said, "I'll be right… behind you…"

"Stop lying to me!" she shouted as his eyes slid closed. "Soul? Soul!" She grabbed his shoulders and shook them as hard as she could, but he didn't wake up. "Soul!"

"Outta the way!" Black Star shouted from right behind Maka. Before she had time to move, he shoved her to the side and grabbed Soul's arms, pulling him onto his back. "Let's move!" he yelled, eyeing the mist as he climbed to his feet and took off at a run down the hall, carrying an unconscious Soul with him as Maka followed right behind.

By the time they reached the lobby, the mist was almost upon them. They stopped in the center of the wide room and formed a kind of defensive circle, the eerie fog closing around them from all sides.

"Now what do we do?" Black Star demanded, a nervous edge to his voice.

"Can anyone see the clock?" Maka asked. She couldn't see it from her position, and she didn't want to take her eyes off the mist for fear of missing some sort of attack.

"I think I see it!" Patty said from somewhere behind Maka. "It looks like—AAAHHHH!" A scream cut her sentence short, and Maka couldn't help but spin around just in time to see Patty disappear into the mist.

"NO!" Kid shouted, immediately taking off after her. Maka wanted to stop him, but someone had to go, and she knew he'd stop at nothing to get her back. They'd make it back. They'd be fine. They'd all make it out of there. They had to.

Just then, something sliced through the air just to Maka's left, cutting her upper arm and making her gasp in pain. She heard similar responses from Liz and Black Star, and realized that the mist must have launched an attack. Looking around, however, she saw nothing.

"What was that?" Liz demanded from Maka's right, looking wildly from side to side.

"I don't know," Maka answered, just as the mist struck again. But this time, she saw it. The fog had formed itself into sharp points, jabbing into their circle like knives.

"Tsubaki!" Black Star called to his partner as Maka heard him set Soul carefully down in the center of their broken circle. Tsubaki shifted into her ninja sword mode in the air, and Black Star caught her immediately and began deftly fending off strikes from every direction.

"They're just trying to scare us!" Maka insisted. "We can beat this! We just have to hold out a little longer!"

"Easy for you to say!" Liz replied, fear evident in her voice. "You're the one they want help from! They can't kill you!" Maka hadn't thought about this, to be honest, and she knew Liz meant no resentment by it. But at the same time, she had a point.

"Come on!" Maka shouted to Liz, reaching out her hand. Liz gave her an apprehensive look, before taking her hand and shifting to weapon form. Maka had never wielded Liz or Patty before, so she wasn't sure of the effect her wavelength would have, but there was little choice at the moment, given the physical state of her own weapon partner.

As Maka fired into the mist and Black Star continued to block strike after strike, Maka found herself frantically wondering how much time had passed, and if they were free to go. When she spun around she thought she saw a few violet flashes of light from inside the mist, near where Patty and Kid had disappeared. A second later, a distant scream struck the air.

"Kid!" Maka yelled, recognizing the voice. It was agonizing not knowing where he and Patty were, so she couldn't imagine how Liz was feeling. Maka could almost feel Liz's fear and worry as they fought, and she hoped their time was almost up.

A few seconds passed, until finally Maka saw a dark shape coming toward them. She aimed Liz as a precaution, but relaxed when she realized it was Kid, clutching Patty's weapon form tight in his left hand. His right hand was clamped over his upper left arm, which as he got close Maka noticed had a long, bloody gash through it.

"What happened?" she demanded. "Are you okay? How's Patty?"

"Later," Kid grunted through gritted teeth. "Patty's fine. What's the time?"

Maka spun around and peered up toward where she knew the clock to be. The mist in front of it thinned just enough for her to see, as the minute hand passed over the twelve, where the hour hand sat still.

"It's midnight!" she shouted so they'd all hear. "RUN!" As she broke for the door, Kid in tow, Black Star dropped Tsubaki—who regained human form and ran after them—and pulled Soul onto his back, bringing up the rear. Maka didn't even bother trying to dodge the knife-like jabs the mist continued to make at them, seeming angrier now than ever. When she reached the door, she pulled it open and threw herself out onto the pavement, each of her friends following her. The mist around them escaped into the air, but hissed and disappeared almost instantly.

"We made it," Maka said in relief, breathing heavily as she sat on the ground. She noticed briefly that the rain had stopped, and that everything around her appeared dry. _It must have stopped a while ago, while we were sleeping_.

"Maka?" Maka gasped at the voice and turned to see Soul pulling himself into a sitting position. "What happened?"

"You're okay!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him as tears filled her eyes. "I thought you…"

He hugged her as tightly as he could in his weakened state, and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine. And I mean it this time."

Black Star let out a breathy chuckle, shaking his head. "So it's over?"

"For now," Kid answered. "The hotel will probably have to close down again. It's not exactly safe with those things running rampant in there."

"We sure made a mess, didn't we?" Black Star said with a grin. "That guy from yesterday's in for one hell of a surprise." He laughed, probably picturing the rude man's expression when he found the wreckage left about the hotel (the front desk in ruins, the glass cylinder shattered, the complete disaster in the dining area, the empty pool, the list went on). Tsubaki elbowed him in the ribs, making him grunt in pain. She gasped and apologized, having forgotten about his injury. Maka almost laughed herself, finally feeling as though things were back to normal.

"We'd better start back," she said finally, rising from the ground. "It's a long trek, and we need to get some of you guys to the hospital." She helped Soul to his feet, watching as Liz did the same for Kid. Soul seemed able to walk on his own, but despite Kid's insisting he could do the same it was obvious to the rest of them he couldn't. After a bit of a fight, he finally allowed Liz to help him.

Things really were getting back to normal.

"The sooner we get away from here," Patty said with a shiver as she shot one last glance at the hotel, "the better off we'll all be."

-0-0-0-0-0-

"I've never been so happy to see Death City in my life!" Black Star exclaimed as they finally reached the outskirts of their home city. "Man, it's good to be back!"

Maka smiled, feeling similarly herself. "Let's just get to a hospital, okay?"

"I am _never_ setting foot in a hotel again," Liz promised.

"I'm with you on that," Soul agreed, shaking his head.

"And no missions for a while, either," Patty added.

Maka was about to agree, when the clock tower sounded from somewhere off to their right. "It's been an hour already?" she said instead. "I'm really gonna need a good night's sleep after—" Her voice broke off as another loud _bong_ rang through the air. She frowned. "It can't have been two hours…" But the _bong_s didn't stop there.

As the clock continued to chime, Maka's eyes widened in disbelief. Looking around, she saw similar expressions on the faces of her tired and injured friends, and she felt her heart drop in dread.

"They tricked us," Black Star said in a low, dangerous voice.

Twelve _bong_s, and silence fell.

It was midnight.

_-The End-_

* * *

><p>Ha-HA! It's done! Hooray! I like when horror moviesstories end but don't really end, so that's sort of what I tried to do. Hopefully it turned out okay. Plus, this sets up for a sequel if I ever decide to write one! Yay! haha.

I want to say thanks to everyone who's stuck with this story since the beginning. I know I went on like an unplanned hiatus, but a lot of you didn't give up on me and came back when I finally update, and I wanna say thanks for that. Thanks also to everyone who reviewed, since the reviews are really what pushes me to write. Without readers and reviewers, my stuff wouldn't exist.

Thanks again, everybody! It's been a really fun ride! Hope to see you all again soon!

-oMM


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